Sensor Based Agility Assessment in Sport.

Agility is the ability of a person to change direction quickly. Measuring the basic and sport-specific physical abilities of athletes is important in sport and recreation. To assess agility, various tests are regularly included in physical abilities test batteries. This paper presents a state-of-the-art approach to measuring human movement in agility tests using infrared optical gates and kinematic sensors. The combination of precise time measurement, position detection and motion measurement enables the acquisition of previously inaccessible kinematic and spatiotemporal variables. This makes the assessment of agility more accurate and provides the athletes and coaches with additional information. With the system presented in this paper, the assessment of the athletes' agility can be recorded more objectively and with greater accuracy than would be possible with conventional equipment and methods. The athletes' performance is assessed with a combination of different sensors, all of which are synchronized with our sensor-based system. This combination provides the athletes with new information about their movement, which is not possible with traditional professional timing devices used to measure time in agility tests. The presented sensor system can be used in various sports and test types, including the frequently used T-test. We present summarized results from a pilot study conducted in cooperation with the Slovenian youth volleyball team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]