Can Inertial Measurement Units Replace Common Sport Science Testing Equipment as an All-in-One Solution?

This pilot study evaluated the agreement between inertial measurement units (IMUs) and criterion standard performance assessment equipment (e.g., timing gates and force platforms).

Sixteen female Division 1 athletes completed a standard, preseason assessment battery including the 10-yard dash, Pro-Agility (5-10-5), countermovement jump, and a 5-3 multirebound jump wearing IMUs throughout the performance assessments to evaluate agreement with force platforms and timing gates. All testing took place in a climate-controlled collegiate weight room environment. Agreement between devices were evaluated separately for each assessment and measurement pair using repeated-measures limits of agreement analysis via the "SimplyAgree" package (v.0.2.1). Bias and limits of agreement were analyzed via method of variance estimates recovery with replicates selection applied.

Inertial measurement units demonstrated a lack of agreement with criterion devices across all performance assessments (10-yard dash completion time, mean bias of -1.22 [0.29] s, and distance covered, mean bias of -4.09 [1.13] m); 5-10-5 completion time, mean bias of 0.80 [0.51] s, and distance covered, mean bias of 7.23 [1.56] m; countermovement jump height, mean bias of -13.12 [2.56] cm, and flight time, mean bias of -0.10 [0.02] s; and multirebound jump height, mean bias of -6.50 [2.65] cm).

Lack of agreement between IMUs and the criterion devices suggest that at present, IMUs should not be used as a single, expedient solution during performance testing.