If you can’t measure it (accurately), you can’t improve it. That philosophy can be applied to many facets of life, but in the sports performance realm it’s imperative to true athlete development. Being able to validate the training process is what drives improvement not only within the athlete population, but within coaches as well. If you are still just guessing, it’s time to do yourself and your athletes a favor and invest in accurate timing gates. Here is what you need to know when considering timing systems.
The most widely available, and cost friendly, are going to be single beam (SB) timing gates. With a very easy setup (quick alignment of detectors), the SB timing gates have only one beam that has to be broken to start or stop the timing. The only issue with this is that anything that passes the gate can cause the gate to signal a break, which can be easily done with a swinging arm yielding an inaccurate, or “fast time.”
Gates with multiple beams can avoid this issue since all the beams need to be broken at once to record a time. Dual beam (DB) timing gates have been said to be more reliable since breaking the beams requires a torso to do so, not a flying hand or knee. The downfall to DB systems are that the setup is slightly more difficult, and all beams must be aligned correctly to work properly. When considering any new technology, the golden rule is that it must make your life as a coach easier, and taking more time to setup should be highly considered.
The differences between SB and DB timing systems have led serious practitioners to use DB in order to derive accurate and reliable sprint time results. In fact, for many years DB timing was the “gold standard” throughout the Australian Institute of Sport network, which is one of the world’s leading sport science organizations. With that being said, there is another type of timing gate known as Single Beam with additional processing. Companies such as Fusion Sport have patented SMARTSPEED, which utilizes technology known as Error Correction Processing, also known as False Signal Processing. Using ECP, there can be any number of hand breaks, or trailing foot breaks, but the microprocessor will simply take the largest event (torso) and take the start of this event as the time point.
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With this information, it’s clear that those serious about objective, reliable results will most likely rule out single beam timing (although SB is still much better than hand-timing). Dual beam has shown to be a better option than single beam, but is costlier and requires more setup time. Single beam with ECP looks to have the ease of single beam setup with the reliability of the DB system, and many independent investigations have shown SB with ECP to be more reliable than traditional DB gates, at all distances. Having “real time” accurate data is very valuable in both testing and managing the athlete, especially in a world where both coaches and athletes will exaggerate improvements.
Utilizing technology to validate the training process is of the utmost importance, and being able to identify whether the athlete has or has not improved is what will drive the proper interventions to build better athletes. To improve athletic performance, coaches need to consistently measure and refine the process. Utilizing a reliable and accurate measure of speed is instrumental for those trying to objectively identify correct training and improvements in competitive athletes.
Takeaway:
- Single beam timing systems have been shown to be less reliable due to a higher potential for error.
- Dual beam systems involve more setup, but have been shown to be more reliable than single beam systems.
- Single beam with ECP may be a good option for those wanting minimal setup, and reliable results.
Phil Wagner is the Founder and CEO of Sparta Science. Sparta Science is on a mission of creating an Evidence Based Training system for athletes to become healthier and perform at a more sports specific level using the scrutiny of technology used in medicine with patients.