We want to give you the best data possible and help you improve your training. You may not know what it means when we say that our devices can collect data at 1000 Hz, while most others can only do 50 Hz. But it makes a big difference. It means that our devices can capture every tiny movement and force that you apply, while others can miss a lot of details. This makes our data more accurate and useful for you. It costs more to make devices like this, but we think it’s worth it and here is why.
We hope you enjoy reading this article that will discuss the sport specific concepts related to Newton’s Laws. However, we assume that you already have a basic knowledge about the physics behind these laws. If you don’t, we kindly suggest that you review them first before reading this article. This will help you understand the concepts better and get more out of this article.
Before we look at how to improve your strength and performance, we need to talk about what to measure. At CC Athletics, we focus on three things that tell us how strong you are; peak force, time to peak and RFD (Rate of force development).
Peak force is the highest amount of force that an athlete can produce during a specific movement and reflects the athlete’s potential weight lifting capacity (Science for Sport, 2021). Force is measured in newtons (N) and is determined by multiplying mass (in kilograms) by acceleration (in meters per second squared) (F=m*a) (Science for Sport, 2021).
Time to peak force is the time interval between when an athlete “decides” to contract a muscle group for a certain movement and when the peak force is reached (Barnes et al., 2007). This is important for movements that involve short contact times, such as kicking a soccer ball. The athlete needs to reach the peak force before or as close as possible to the contact with the ball, otherwise the full potential of the force output will not be utilized.
Rate of force development (RFD) is a measure of explosive strength, or how fast an athlete can produce force (Science for Sport, 2016). It is defined as the change in force divided by the change in time. RFD is not constant and varies depending on the stage of the force measurement. (See image on top)
We invested more money on our devices and the hardware to enable a 1000 Hz measurement so we can capture these useful features. Peak force is the moment when the athlete generates the most force, and it lasts for a very short time. Therefore, a more precise measurement with a thousand data points per second will capture the actual force output better than a less precise one with only 50 data points per second that most products offer. Moreover, for measuring time to peak and RFD, the responsiveness of the device is even more critical.
As a sports practitioner, you should know what you want to measure and how to use the data. That’s why we at CC Athletics prioritize the responsiveness of our devices, so you can base your important decisions on the best possible data.
References:
Science for Sport. (2021). Peak force. Retrieved from https://www.scienceforsport.com/peak-force/
Barnes, A., Kilding, A., Ross, A., & McGuigan, M. (2007). Lower-body determinants of running economy in male and female distance runners. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 21(3), 952-956. https://doi.org/10.1519/R-19965.1
Science for Sport. (2016). Rate of force development (RFD). Retrieved from https://www.scienceforsport.com/rate-of-force-development-rfd-2/
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