Measurement of contact forces on a kayak ergometer with a sliding footrest-seat complex

Kinematic analysis is done by measurement of the position of bodies, followed by differentiation to get the accelerations of the centres of mass, and it is widely used in sport research. Another common approach is to measure the forces directly. Our intention here is to perform both a kinematic and a kinetic analysis of the same athlete-equipment system, in this case an athlete on a sliding kayak ergometer, with the aim of exploring the errors that may occur with each measurement type. The kayak ergometer with a sliding trolley, instrumented by seven uniaxial force sensors and two goniometers, was placed in a filming area. The instrumentation was validated in the direction of the anteroposterior axis using Newton's second law. Ten athletes paddled at 92 strokes per minute, following a stationary phase. The comparison between the net force and the time-derivative of the linear momentum indicated a friction level of about 20 N between the trolley and the frame. Other errors came mainly from the inertial parameters of the trunk. A first analysis of contact forces shows a large inter-subject variability, in particular for the forces applied to the footrest and the seat.