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A friend’s life-altering event proved life-altering for Alicia Gal, too.
When a close friend of Gal’s broke his neck and was slowly working his way through rehab in North Bay, Gal introduced him to a coach of a local sledge hockey team.
“I really wanted to show him that there was still something out there. He could still be athletic. He could still play hockey,” Gal said.
Her friend took up the sport and soon was a top goal-scorer.
“He’s an inspiration to me,” she said. “I don’t know if I’d have enough courage to do what he did and to excel in it. His life-changing event kind of changed my life, too. It gave me a direction to go in.”
That direction was research. After completing her undergraduate degree at Nipissing University in North Bay, Gal came to Carleton University for her master of applied science. Last fall she started her PhD in Carleton’s inaugural biomedical engineering program.
In sledge hockey, also known as para ice hockey, participants sit in a small, tight-fitting sled fitted with a single blade. They propel themselves with two short sticks, equipped with spikes on the butt end to grip the ice. The game was developed in Sweden in the 1960s and debuted at the Winter Paralympics in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994.
Related
But Gal was surprised to find little research had been done on sledge hockey. Though able-bodied athletes can play the sport, at the elite level athletes must have a recognized disability such as lower body paralysis or amputation.
“They are para athletes, so each athlete is unique,” Gal said. “You and I would probably do it the same way, because we don’t have a limitation on our body. That’s why science is huge for para athletes because, literally, each athlete needs to be assessed on their own to help them to get better, the best way.
“It took so long for people to get interested in para athletes, yet they’re the ones who really need our help.”
Gal’s research uses three tools. She uses the sophisticated Human Movements Biomechanic Laboratory at the University of Ottawa to take video of athletes performing common sledge hockey movements. Small reflectors that look like tiny disco balls are affixed to the athletes body, then they are illuminated with infrared light. A series of 10 cameras captures the motion, which can then be digitally converted to a stick figure, viewable in 3D. It’s the same technique video game makers use to recreate lifelike movements in their games.
Another technique uses tiny devices called Inertial Movement Sensors to precisely measure the movement and placement of the sticks. An app lets the player or coach instantly see and analyze the motion on their smartphones. In the third technique, electromyography, electrical sensors are affixed to the skin to measure which muscles are used for certain movements.
Gal recruited able-bodied athletes — soccer players and basketball players, for example, who’d never played sledge hockey — to compare how they perform the sport compared to an experienced sledge hockey player. These “task naive” athletes, as she called them, reflect someone learning the sport for the first time, just as if they were coming out of rehab.
“Most of them pulled themselves across the ice. But mathematically and mechanically, it’s more advantageous to push yourself,” Gal said. “Getting elite players to come in, we’re going to be able to see the difference between an able-bodied athlete who’s never done it before and an expert para athlete who does it all the time.
“We can close the gap to help someone fresh out of rehab or young children who are just starting. We can say, ‘Here’s where you need to be, but here’s what you’re probably going to do. Let’s grow from there.’ ”
So far, her research has shown that it’s crucially important how a player places his or her stick on the ice to power forward. The second crucial skill is balance.
“Our best participant not only pushed all the time, he also had the best balance in the sledge. His movement had less stagger. It was neat to see — on ice or off ice, it doesn’t matter — these elite athletes had to have balance in the core. Once you have that, we can teach you how to stick handle and how to shoot.”
Gal’s research has drawn interest from Canada’s National Para Hockey team, which won the world championship in 2017 and will be going for gold at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang in March.
Gal hopes her research can help the sport as a whole, but also help promising athletes move up to the next level.
“It’s putting athletes on track for elite performances.”
To learn more about the sport, contact the Sledge Hockey Association of Eastern Ontario at sheo.ca
bcrawford@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
Alicia Gal added wheels to a para hockey sledge to study the science of the sport in the lab.
查看原文...
When a close friend of Gal’s broke his neck and was slowly working his way through rehab in North Bay, Gal introduced him to a coach of a local sledge hockey team.
“I really wanted to show him that there was still something out there. He could still be athletic. He could still play hockey,” Gal said.
Her friend took up the sport and soon was a top goal-scorer.
“He’s an inspiration to me,” she said. “I don’t know if I’d have enough courage to do what he did and to excel in it. His life-changing event kind of changed my life, too. It gave me a direction to go in.”
That direction was research. After completing her undergraduate degree at Nipissing University in North Bay, Gal came to Carleton University for her master of applied science. Last fall she started her PhD in Carleton’s inaugural biomedical engineering program.
In sledge hockey, also known as para ice hockey, participants sit in a small, tight-fitting sled fitted with a single blade. They propel themselves with two short sticks, equipped with spikes on the butt end to grip the ice. The game was developed in Sweden in the 1960s and debuted at the Winter Paralympics in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994.
Related
But Gal was surprised to find little research had been done on sledge hockey. Though able-bodied athletes can play the sport, at the elite level athletes must have a recognized disability such as lower body paralysis or amputation.
“They are para athletes, so each athlete is unique,” Gal said. “You and I would probably do it the same way, because we don’t have a limitation on our body. That’s why science is huge for para athletes because, literally, each athlete needs to be assessed on their own to help them to get better, the best way.
“It took so long for people to get interested in para athletes, yet they’re the ones who really need our help.”
Gal’s research uses three tools. She uses the sophisticated Human Movements Biomechanic Laboratory at the University of Ottawa to take video of athletes performing common sledge hockey movements. Small reflectors that look like tiny disco balls are affixed to the athletes body, then they are illuminated with infrared light. A series of 10 cameras captures the motion, which can then be digitally converted to a stick figure, viewable in 3D. It’s the same technique video game makers use to recreate lifelike movements in their games.
Another technique uses tiny devices called Inertial Movement Sensors to precisely measure the movement and placement of the sticks. An app lets the player or coach instantly see and analyze the motion on their smartphones. In the third technique, electromyography, electrical sensors are affixed to the skin to measure which muscles are used for certain movements.
Gal recruited able-bodied athletes — soccer players and basketball players, for example, who’d never played sledge hockey — to compare how they perform the sport compared to an experienced sledge hockey player. These “task naive” athletes, as she called them, reflect someone learning the sport for the first time, just as if they were coming out of rehab.
“Most of them pulled themselves across the ice. But mathematically and mechanically, it’s more advantageous to push yourself,” Gal said. “Getting elite players to come in, we’re going to be able to see the difference between an able-bodied athlete who’s never done it before and an expert para athlete who does it all the time.
“We can close the gap to help someone fresh out of rehab or young children who are just starting. We can say, ‘Here’s where you need to be, but here’s what you’re probably going to do. Let’s grow from there.’ ”
So far, her research has shown that it’s crucially important how a player places his or her stick on the ice to power forward. The second crucial skill is balance.
“Our best participant not only pushed all the time, he also had the best balance in the sledge. His movement had less stagger. It was neat to see — on ice or off ice, it doesn’t matter — these elite athletes had to have balance in the core. Once you have that, we can teach you how to stick handle and how to shoot.”
Gal’s research has drawn interest from Canada’s National Para Hockey team, which won the world championship in 2017 and will be going for gold at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang in March.
Gal hopes her research can help the sport as a whole, but also help promising athletes move up to the next level.
“It’s putting athletes on track for elite performances.”
To learn more about the sport, contact the Sledge Hockey Association of Eastern Ontario at sheo.ca
bcrawford@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
Alicia Gal added wheels to a para hockey sledge to study the science of the sport in the lab.
查看原文...
