Assessment of impact measurement data from low sampling rates.

Engineering of Sport 15 - Proceedings from the 15th International Conference on the Engineering of Sport (ISEA 2024)

Performance benchmarking allows incremental improvement through materials, form, and dominant design, of sports equipment. International sporting rules, and formal tradition do not always follow this rationale as evidenced in the sport of polo, where high ranked players prefer traditional, natural material constructions over composite materials, despite the evidence of performance improvements. To understand individual ideals we consider the interactions of match play. The overarching question is how might testing be done independently of the players, enabling product development to address subjectivity. It is found through video, and the laws of motion, that the game can be analysed through observation [4], however the equipment (mallet and ball) are subject to forces and reactions that cannot be measured in this way. As part of this wider study reaction forces on the ball are measured, the authors consider that even at low velocity these values will be proportional to the maximum forces that can be applied by the mallet [3]. For the forces and reactions observed in play, many instruments used for measuring static and quasi static loads of materials become unreliable. Forthis reason the testing was done to deteremine what level of confidence might be had using low sampling rate sensors and wether there might be some means to qualify their use for studying peak force.