World Gymnastics Championship, Brisbane, 1994: a biomechanical analysis

World Gymnastics Championship, Brisbane, 1994: a biomechanical analysis

World Gymnastic Championships have a great impact on the gymnastics community and enthusiasts worldwide. For this reason the biomechanics project was conducted to study continued technical developments and to identify important tendencies in gymnastic techniques. The biomechanics project at this World Championship focused mainly on ‘take-offs and landings’ of selected events: and also case studies of two novel skills, the ‘MO’ and the ‘O’Neill’ were also performed.

c. Australian Sports Commission 1997.

The project was funded through a $36,000 grant from the Australian Sports Commission under the Applied Sports Research Program. The project was endorsed by the International Gymnastics Federation and supported by the International Society of Biomechanics in Sport. This project was successfully completed and a comprehensive two-volume research report for the Australian Sports Commission was produced.

In 1992 I was granted four months of study leave by Victoria University to do research at Koeln (Cologne) Sports University, Germany. I conducted a number of biomechanics projects with Professor Peter Brüggemann who, at the time, was the world expert on sports-biomechanics pertaining to gymnastics. My research activities included video capture of the German Gymnastics Championships with subsequent 3D motion analysis. This analysis utilised the 'Peak Performance Motion Analysis System' developed, with my initial vision and encouragement, by biomechanist Phillip Cheetham. In the 1970's I had coached Phillip from a beginning gymnast to an Olympic gymnast who represented Australia at the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980.