InsideBrockport
Research Powers Golden Eagles
Christopher Williams explains his Power Training Program and the Ariel Computerized Exercise System (ACES) in the Biomechanics Laboratory to his student. By John Follaco Tucked away in the Tuttle South Athletic Complex lies a room in which Brockport student-athletes are getting bigger, faster, and stronger. However, it’s not a gym. It’s not a weight room, either. It’s a Biomechanics Laboratory run by Brockport’s Department of Kinesiology, Sport Studies, and Physical Education. The lab, in collaboration with the Department of Athletics, has instituted a Power Training Program that employs theory, principles, and tools from biomechanics, movement analysis, and strength and conditioning to develop skillspecific training activities that are then incorporated into the training programs of Brockport student-athletes. The program’s primary focus, says lab director Christopher Williams, PhD, is to develop explosive power in studentathletes. “Power in sport is a combination of force
and velocity. The ability to produce power implies that someone is able to produce high amounts of force at high speeds,” he says. “From a sports perspective, that tends to transition into performance advantages over other athletes.” Williams has teamed with Brockport strength and conditioning coach Ed Jaskulski to develop a comprehensive, year-round program that includes three distinct phases: offseason training, preseason training, and in-season training. The program is constructed in a way that prepares the student-athletes’ bodies to be primed for their sport-specific tasks during their season. It utilizes cutting-edge technology such as video analysis, electromyography (a technique used to evaluate and record electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles) and electrogoniometry (the science of measuring angles and the changes in them). The program analyzes
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sport-specific skills, such as ice skating for hockey players, and then develops exercises designed to best prepare student-athletes to develop them. Specialized equipment is applied in this stage of the program. One such piece, the Ariel Computerized Exercise System (ACES), has played a crucial role. ACES is a hydraulically driven multijoint isokinetic dynamometer. It responds to the force that a user applies to it with a level of resistance that is able to control the speed of the movement. It doesn’t employ load-based training, meaning that weight is not added to the machine. Instead, it relies on velocity. Student-athletes apply force to a lever and move in a pattern that is consistent with the intended goal of the exercise. The machine’s software monitors the user’s activity and adjusts the resistive force accordingly. “ACES is ideal for power training,” Williams says.