Joint angles during early sprint acceleration with wearable resistance among Australian Rules football players

Rapid acceleration is an important quality for field-based sport athletes. Technical factors contribute to greater acceleration and these can be deliberately influenced by coaches through implementation of constraints, which afford particular coordinative states or induce variability generally. Lightweight wearable resistance is an emerging training tool, which can act as a constraint on acceleration. At present, however, the effects on whole-body coordination resulting from different WR configurations and magnitudes are unknown. To better understand these effects, five male Australian Rules football athletes performed a series of 20 m sprints with either relatively light or heavy wearable resistance applied to the anterior or posterior aspects of the thighs or shanks. Whole body coordination during one complete stride in early acceleration was examined across eight wearable resistance conditions and compared with baseline (unresisted) acceleration coordination using group- and individu...