Performance science

The Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) provide a range of applied support services to:

• QAS sport program athletes and coaches
• Queensland-based National Sporting Organisation National Training Centre programs.

Performance Science examines competition and training performance and is underpinned by each of the major sports science disciplines. The QAS Performance Science unit uses contemporary, evidence-based practices to evaluate and impact individual and team sport performance.

QAS Performance Science assessments include:

• two-dimensional and three-dimensional high-speed video analysis
• three-dimensional filming and feedback to coaches and athletes
• aerobic capacity (VO₂max)
• assessment of economy of locomotion
• anaerobic capacity
• anaerobic 'threshold' or maximal steady-state blood lactate
• anthropometric testing
• quantifying training loads
• skill assessment under fatiguing conditions
• speed and agility field testing
• strength and power testing
• responses to heat and altitude including blood haemoglobin and thermoregulation assessments
• time-motion analysis — quantifying demands of training and competition.

Sport science disciplines

We employ specialised staff across disciplines including physiology, biomechanics, skill acquisition and performance analysis.

Physiology

Physiologists work with coaches, athletes and other scientists in assessing the acute and chronic adaptations to training, monitoring performance both in training and competition settings. This involves the measurement of a range of physiological variables, including cardiovascular, neuromuscular, hormonal, blood and performance variables.

Biomechanics

QAS biomechanists are involved in the observation, measurement and analysis of training and competition performance, and use their expertise to support coach understanding and athlete development. The team is responsible for the operation of all KPASS biomechanical testing equipment at the QAS Recovery Centre.

Skill acquisition

Skill acquisition specialists use their understanding of motor control and learning to design training programs that give both coaches and athletes a competitive advantage. This includes; designing innovative practice approaches to aid athletes in accelerating their skill development, assessing how athletes combine their awareness of their surrounds and their motor skills to perform multiple complex tasks in their sport and using technology to assist in feedback and skill learning, such as 2D or 3D video.

Performance analysis

Performance analysis underpins each of the major disciplines as physiologists, biomechanists and skill acquisition specialists are interested in the use of information and communications technology by coaches to develop athlete performance in training and competition environments. Performance analysis in the training and competition environments ensures there is a permanent record of performance, systematically observe and analyse aspects of performance and provide quantitative and qualitative information. Coaches utilise this process to compile objective and reliable observations of performance that can then be used to assess current performance and promote learning and improved subsequent performance.

Recovery centre

The QAS Swimming Pool has world-class biomechanical equipment, including a Kistler force instrumented starting block and turn wall, 25m calibrated camera systems both above and below water, and multi-angle video views. QAS scientists working with swimming, triathlon and water polo coaches and athletes utilise the QAS Recovery Centre Pool facilities to help improve performance, both through detailed analysis of their performance and immediate augmented feedback to assist in the skill learning process.

Analysts provide coaches and athletes with:

• objective competition and training data that may include time-coded video, statistical data or individual race analysis information
• analysis of force application within the pool environment to understand technical and physical factors influencing performance
• immediate visual and data-based feedback help facilitate the learning process and improve performance.