Annual Review - Olympic Oval - University of Calgary

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Research & Development Over the 2005-2006 season, the Olympic Oval continued to pursue its research and development initiatives, providing athletes with one of the most technologically advanced training centers in the world. Research Team Dr. Sean Maw Sports Science Research and Development Consultant Dr. Clifton Johnston Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering Mark Messer Olympic Oval Ice Specialist Dr. Larry Katz University of Calgary Faculty of Kinesiology Dr. Peter Ehlers University of Calgary, Department of Mathematics and Statistics Dr. Brian MacIntosh Faculty of Kinesiology Dr. Edward Lozowski University of Alberta, Faculty of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences The research team worked with the support of: Speed Skating Canada Canadian Sport Centre Calgary Innovation Alberta Health Sciences Program, University of Calgary Olympic Oval Coaches The group focused on three main areas of activity: athlete performance coaching effectiveness/efficiency athlete safety All research and development projects at the fall into one of these categories with the results applied to short track, long track, cycling and female hockey. Research Projects National Sprint Team Member, Kim Weger. Photo by Arno Hoogveld. National Team Skin Suit Design Drs. Maw and Johnston, and University of Manitoba research assistant Janelle Vincent, worked with Descente, the National Research Council, and members of the National Short and Long Track programs to produce the final skin suit designs for the Canadian Olympic Team in Torino. Combined with work performed on the Canadian National Team Cross Country Skiing Suits for the Torino Olympics, 14 of 24 Canadian Olympic medal winners wore suits with design input from the Olympic Oval R&D Team. This design work included wind tunnel testing both at the University of Calgary and at the NRC Low Speed Wind Tunnel in Ottawa. Different fabrics were tested in different configurations, to produce the most aerodynamic suit possible. In the case of short track, an additional consideration was safety, as the suits had to include cut and puncture resistant areas that would meet the latest ISU safety standards for 2005-2006. 16
National Team Skin Suit Design Drs. Maw and Johnston, and University of Manitoba research assistant Janelle Vincent, worked with Descente, the National Research Council, and members of the National Short and Long Track programs to produce the final skin suit designs for the Canadian Olympic Team in Torino. Combined with work performed on the Canadian National Team Cross Country Skiing Suits for the Torino Olympics, 14 of 24 Canadian Olympic medal winners wore suits with design input from the Olympic Oval R&D Team. This design work included wind tunnel testing both at the University of Calgary and at the NRC Low Speed Wind Tunnel in Ottawa. Different fabrics were tested in different configurations, to produce the most aerodynamic suit possible. In the case of short track, an additional consideration was safety, as the suits had to include cut and puncture resistant areas that would meet the latest ISU safety standards for 2005- 2006. Speed Skating Crash Pad Research Intensive work continued on crash pad evaluations at the Olympic Oval. This past year the focus was on short track pad testing with Health Sciences research assistant Kali Nunweiler. A number of different pads were built specifically for this testing. They were evaluated with impacts at various velocities. The work has resulted in guidelines for pad selections in Canadian short track facilities. As well, a paper describing the work has been accepted for presentation at the 2006 International Sports Engineering Association (ISEA) conference in Munich, July 2006. Video Processing and Dartfish The Olympic Oval continued to develop its video processing capacity with University of Calgary Kinesiology students Lisa Wong and Kevin Huang, supervised by Dr. Larry Katz, helping to construct the video room in the South Storage facility. This room allowed coaches to easily examine video taken from speed skating practices. An archive is being created that will store all videos for Olympic Oval athletes. Crash/Fall/Injury Database Working with Speed Skating Canada, Dr. Maw and his students, Mercedes Louro and Rory Sykes, constructed a database cataloguing all of the falls and crashes at most of the Canadian Short Track Team Trials over the last few years. With this information, the team was able to produce credible statistics relating falls to various causal factors. A first study of its kind in sport and in speed skating, the results will soon be published in an academic journal. Recommendations have also been made to Speed Skating Canada on safety enhancements for team trial rules and procedures. Short Track Start Statistics Jessica Vredenburg, a University of Calgary Kinesiology graduate student and researcher in the area of sports psychology, continued work investigating the effects of start position on finishing position in short track speed skating, under the supervision of Drs. Sean Maw and Peter Ehlers. Crash/Fall/Injury Database GPS Evaluation in Competitive Cycling With the cooperation of Alberta Innovation and the Canadian Sports Centre Calgary, Drs. Maw and MacIntosh (Kinesiology) supervised undergraduate student Travis Saunders in a project looking at the value of GPS systems in competitive cycling. Working with Olympic Oval Cycling Coaches Tanya Dubnicoff and Stephen Burke, the project explored various training regimes, race preview scenarios, and race monitoring situations. It was shown that GPS systems do have a lot to offer cyclists and as a legacy of the project, the CSCC has inherited an FRWD GPS transceiver for multisport use, including cycling. The Klap Trap Drs. Maw and Johnston worked with Engineering undergraduate Allen Yuen to develop a unique system to monitor the activity of the klap mechanism in long track speed skating, while the skater is skating. The skater wears a small backpack holding a laptop. Instrumentation on one skate records the movements of the klap mechanism. The output allows coaches and researchers to see how the klap behaviour changes on straights versus corners, at various speeds, and under different levels of fatigue. This will allow for technical improvements both in coaching and in klap mechanism design. A paper presenting the work has been accepted for the ISEA conference in Munich, July 2006. Ice Research Olympic Oval Ice Specialist Mark Messer and Dr. Maw worked with ice researcher Dr. Edward Lozowski worked with ice researcher Dr. Edward Lozowski to model the behaviour of ice as skate blades pass over and through it. This work has the potential to lead to new skate blade designs and ice maintenance techniques that will produce faster racing times. Research is ongoing. 17
Page 1 and 2: Annual 2005/2006 Review
Page 3 and 4: Message from the Director It’s be
Page 5 and 6: Maintaining the Olympic Oval ice, a
Page 7 and 8: Events The Olympic Oval hosted more
Page 9 and 10: Coaches Tanya Dubnicoff - Head Coac
Page 11 and 12: Results 2005 - 2006 WWHL Season * P
Page 13 and 14: Results Four Olympic Oval athletes
Page 15 and 16: World Cup Successes This was Jeremy
Page 17: High Performance Athletes Club Race
Page 21 and 22: Staff Executive Management Team Mar
Page 23 and 24: Printing Courtesy:

Annual Review - Olympic Oval - University of Calgary

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