Evaluating the relationship between negative foot speed and sprint performance using shoe-mounted inertial sensors

Negative foot speed (i.e., the speed of the backward and downward motion of the foot relative to the body at ground contact) is a strong predictor of sprinting performance. Inertial measurement units (IMUs) are becoming a popular approach for assessing sports performance. The primary aim of this study was to use IMUs to investigate the relationship between negative foot speed and top running speed attained during a sprint on an outdoor track. The secondary aim of this study was to use IMUs to investigate the relationship between initial contact foot velocity and running speed on a stride-by-stride basis for a sprint on an outdoor track. Seventeen participants performed 80-meter track sprints while wearing a shoe-mounted IMU. The anteroposterior component, vertical component, and magnitude of the velocity of the foot at initial contact was extracted from the IMU for each stride. For the mean peak stride speed of 7.98±0.78m/s and average stride speed of 7.43±0.68m/s, the adjusted R2 values were 0.27 and 0.69, 0.42 and 0.64, and 0.42 and 0.75 versus the anteroposterior, vertical, and magnitude of initial contact foot velocity, respectively. In conclusion, our findings support the common coaching tip of increasing negative foot speed to improve sprint speed. In addition, the results of this study support the use of IMUs for quantifying sprinting technique with actionable metrics.