Biomechanical Analysis of Movement (SES020C122Y)

Laboratory Report Assessment Resit

Deadline Date: 01.08.2017 at 2pm

Assignments should be submitted via the TURNITIN submission link on the Moodle Page
As this is a resit assessment, all marks will be capped at 40% regardless of the mark achieved unless you
had a successful application for mitigating circumstances at the time of the original assessment.

You should produce a laboratory report which follows the same guidelines (see below) as the first
laboratory report. Please note there are some differences to your resit submission that you must pay
attention to:
You MUST USE the NEW DATA (provided below and available in an Excel sheet on Moodle) to formulate
your results section and subsequent discussion. Any students re-submitting the previous data will achieve
a score of ZERO.
You SHOULD NOT INCLUDE a Methods section in your resit submission Laboratory Report however you
should clearly report which statistical tests you carried out in your results section

NEW DATA – TO BE USED IN THIS ASSIGNMENT

Velocity Data
BUNCHED START MEDIUM START
The following guidelines (as well as feedback from your first assessment) can be used to help you write
your laboratory report and to analyse your feedback/mark later on. This is an INDIVIDUAL submission and
so you should write up the laboratory on your own. To minimize the risk of collusion in your reports, each
individual student must select the variables that they will analyse. You will justify the selection of these
variables in the Introduction section. You must not use all the variables on the data sheet. Select 2
variables to determine if there is a difference between the conditions. Select 2 other variables to
determine if there is an association (relationship) between them in each condition.
Consistent sharing/copying and pasting of information will be considered as collusion.

1. ABSTRACT: THIS SECTION SUMMARISES THE RESEARCH

 Background and aim – 2-3 sentences

 Methods, key points of the data collection and analysis
 Results, key findings, with numbers
 Conclusion, what is the main finding of the experiment.

2. INTRODUCTION: THIS SECTION ILLUSTRATES THE PRIOR READING

• Is there a general introductory paragraph, defining the role of biomechanics in analyzing the sprint
start and sprinting? Include background information (theory) to your study and literature review
(past research which covers sprinting & sprint start techniques)
• State the aim of each skill (sprint start and sprinting) of the movement and the variables that could
be used to assess the ability of a performer to achieve the aim.
• Indicate why there might be a difference between the two conditions. Use biomechanics theory
and previous research to support this position. This will lead to the specific aim of the analysis and
the variables stated in the hypotheses (below).
• What is the aim of the analysis (e.g. does the starting block set-up influence sprinting)? What do
you want the reader to know at the end that they do not know at the beginning of the report?
• Justify the variables you have selected to analyse in the results section.
• The hypotheses should detail the specific variables being analysed which will indicate if a difference
exists or not. The hypotheses should determine the difference between the conditions. The
hypotheses should determine if there was a relationship between the variables in each condition.
• Are key books/journal articles referenced throughout

3. RESULTS: THIS SECTION CORRESPONDS TO THE PRESENTATION OF THE DATA

The data that you chose to present should facilitate your discussion of the overall outcomes of the
assignment.
All information presented in the results section should:

 Have the correct titles for all figures and tables (and include the appropriate unit of each variable)
and these should be labelled correctly and in order.
 Support each figure / table with a short paragraph of text explaining what it shows (DO NOT
DISCUSS WHAT THE RESULTS MEAN, JUST REPORT WHAT THEY SHOW)
 Include the whole dataset for the variables that you have selected in the Appendix Section at the
end of the Assignment.
The results section needs to contain 3 specific components:
1. A Table to present the data that you have chosen to assess the difference between the two conditions
and determine if there is a difference between them
Choose 2 variables from; time to complete 5m; distance in 1.5s; Maximal Velocity; Rear Foot First stride
length; Rear Foot First stride time; Front Foot First Stride Length; Front Foot First Stride Time. Indicate the
result from the statistical test of difference, for the 2 variables you have chosen, between the 2 conditions
-use a symbol and report the p-value.
This is an example of how the table should look. You should replace ‘Variable 1’ and ‘Variable 2’ with the
correct label for the 2 variables that you have chosen. Choose any 2 variables from the Excel spreadsheet
provided.
Table 1: Mean (SD) for ‘Variable 1’ and ‘Variable 2’ in each condition. Statistical difference between the
conditions is indicated by * at p<0.05.

Bunch Medium
Variable 1 11.63 (0.48) 11.23 (0.76)
Variable 2 19.02 (0.68) 18.95 (0.98)

2. A Figure to present the relationship between 2 variables in each condition

Select 2 variables to determine if there is an association (relationship) between them in each condition.
These variables can be the same variables are you have discussed earlier, or they can be different variables
that you feel may have a relationship. Present a figure which indicates the association (relationship)
between 2 variables in each condition (and report the r-value).

1.2

1.1

0.9
Variable B

0.8
Bunch
0.7
Medium
0.6
Linear (Bunch)
0.5
Linear (Medium)
0.4

0.3
3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7
Variable A

Figure 1: Association between ‘Variable 3’ and ‘Variable 4’ for the whole group. The Pearson correlation
coefficient, r, indicates a moderately strong relationship between the 2 variables in each condition.
3. A Velocity vs Time Graph of the group data comparing the two conditions
Present velocity-time results (over the 5m) in each condition in a figure. The figure should have 2 lines (one
for bunch and another one for medium).
This is an example of how the figure should look (see next page)

6
Velocity (m/s) 5

3 Bunch

2 Medium

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Time (s)

Figure 2: Velocity of the Centre of Mass over 5m for the bunch and medium conditions.

4. DISCUSSION: INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

• Was there a difference between the conditions? If so, which, condition was best? Use your results
to evidence this position.
• How did your results compare against the whole group?
• Was there a relationship between the 2 variables in each condition?
• From a theoretical perspective (relate back to the theories outlines in the Introduction), why might
this be the case?
• Compare the results with previous research.
• Are any anomalies addressed?
• Are the limitations, including the nature of the data, indicated?
• Was the aim of the experiment achieved?

5. CONCLUSION

• Which, if any, is the best sprint start condition? Justify your answer.
• Is a conclusion/summary statement given?
• Are any recommendations made for future research of if the experiment were to be repeated
given?

6. REFERENCES AND APPENDICES

• Have appropriate textbooks, journal articles been used?

• Do all the sources in the text match those in the reference section?
• Is the referencing in the correct style?
• Is all the raw data included – this is the table from the handout with YOUR data?
• Have you included evidence of your data extraction / analysis? You can include the sheet that you
filled out during the practical class session or a screen shot of your sprint start analysis in MaxTRAQ.
In all of these sections attention will be paid to the content, then to the structure and then to the
presentation. The weighting of these may vary slightly from section to section, for example, in the results
section, where clarity is very important, presentation will have a higher relative value.