In order to standardise joint angles for each athlete, the practitioner is required to obtain specific limb length data points and insert them into the “Metrics athlete data sheet”. In adult populations these measurements will only need to be collected once. However, for growing athletes it is advised that these measurements are collected every three to six months to ensure that an up-to-date accurate reading is obtained reflective of their growth rate.
Download and save the “Metrics athlete data sheet” to a secure location on your computer. Once opening the document, if you are prompted with an “enable content” alert, click ok. If not, ignore this instruction.
Athlete anthropometrics
Collect the athlete’s height and weight and input it into the respective cells of the spreadsheet. BMI will update automatically.
Associate the colours of the “height” and “body mass” cells to the “Athlete body size guide” and choose the appropriate descriptive to add to the “Athlete dimensions” “Body size” cell to the right.
Create a new row in the “athlete list” to insert the above and below information to.
Athlete positioning
Have the athlete lay supine and barefoot with his kicking leg in a “glute bridge starting position” with the knees at approximately 90 degrees, ankle dorsiflexed and only the heel of the foot on the floor (see below).
Palpate the lateral aspect of the greater trochanter of the hip and place the “zero” of the tape measure there (see below).
Locate the centre of the lateral aspect of the knee in a vertical line from the floor and place the other end of the tape measure there (see below).
Note the reading down as the “Upper leg” length in the “Athlete dimensions” section.
Now, place the “zero” of the tape measure on the centre of the lateral aspect of the knee and locate the point in which the heel meets the floor (see below).
Place the other end of the tape measure at this point and note the reading down as the “Lower leg” length in the “Athlete dimensions” section.
Choose your hip angle, and hit “ctrl-H”. The “Bar Height” and “Heel” numbers will recalculate appropriately to provide bespoke numbers for your athlete (see below).
Copy and paste all of the collected numbers into the remaining cells within the athlete’s row in the “Athlete list” section of the sheet.
Associate the “Bar height” number with the “Bar Height Increment” and adjust the bar height accordingly.
Associate the “Heel” number with the respective numbers on the footplate of the HEB.
Horizontal bar placement
The horizontal bar position should only change when the athlete is “XS”, “S”, “XL” or “XXL”. If XS or S, the bar should be adjusted one notch closer to the athlete’s midriff and vice versa for XL or XXL. Otherwise, the horizontal bar position should remain at position 8.
