HOW TO MEASURE THE SPEED OF PEOPLE AND OBJECTS IN SPORTS? - ARTE - 2025

The speed in sports can be measured in different ways depending on the activity, preference and resources. Speed ​​tests, as well as speedometers, radars, and GPS can be used in athletics, cycling and swimming.

When it comes to sports that use balls, strategically positioned sensors and radars are usually used.

Speed ​​is the distance traveled in a given time, so in sports these two elements are usually measured and are very important when determining skill.

Manual methods for measuring speed in sports

Baseball ball

To calculate the speed of a baseball, you must first calculate the distance in feet between the pitching point and the home plate area. For example, on a major league field, the distance is 60 feet 6 inches.

Then the time it takes for the ball to reach home plate is measured in seconds with a stopwatch. The distance must be divided by the time it took for the ball to travel.

So if for example the launch traveled 60 feet 6 inches in 0.5 seconds, you would have to divide 60.5 by 0.5. The result would be 121 feet per second.

Therefore, this result should be multiplied by 3,600 to have the calculation in hours; in this case it would be 435,600.

The last step would be to divide that result by 5,280, which is the number of feet in a mile, to get the speed in miles per hour. In this case that number would be 82.5 miles per hour, so that would be the speed of the ball.

Athletics / Swimming

An easy way to calculate the distance is with the formula V = D / T. The distance to be traveled must first be measured.

Then the athlete's time is measured with a stopwatch; later the distance must be divided over the time taken. Thus the speed of the runner or swimmer can be obtained.

Technical methods

Accelerometers

These sensors can be incorporated into shoelaces and measure running speed correctly. Today, many brands make these types of devices. They are usually used in conjunction with modern watches.

Accelerometers can determine running ability by measuring both the vertical acceleration and the horizontal acceleration of the foot.

Inertial sensors measure acceleration more than 1,000 times per second, and with specific algorithms they are able to calculate the angle of the foot and the walking speed.

The accelerometer measures the acceleration throughout each step, then calculates the angles of the foot and determines the resulting acceleration in the direction of travel.

This data is integrated for each step and then this information is transmitted to the clock that the runner loads. After being calibrated, their authenticity is estimated to be 99%. Many runners and cyclists use this method.

GPS

A GPS is a Global Positioning System. It is used to follow movements and has many applications in the sports world.

On the sports field, players can use units that track their every move; They can then be analyzed by your coach. Cyclists and runners can use GPS to analyze their distances and routes.

It depends on the model, you can have fairly accurate readings of speed, distance traveled, travel time and even calories consumed.

However, since they depend on a satellite signal they tend not to work perfectly under certain conditions. For this reason, they are not as reliable when it comes to analyzing speed and distances in the short term.

Radars

Its purpose is to measure the maximum speed of an object; the most common are radar guns. There are several models, but the vast majority of radars use the principle of the Doppler effect to detect the speed of an object.

This gun transmits electromagnetic waves that bounce off the object it is aiming at, returning to the device at a slightly different frequency. The radar detects this change in frequency and then incorporates it into the speed of movement.

The radar can be configured to calculate the maximum speed reached of some object, such as a ball or a bat, as well as a part of the body such as the arm. This is why they are so useful in a large number of sports.

Radars can be used manually, placed on a tripod or on the ground. To get a correct speed reading, most radars need to be placed directly on the line of distance the object is traveling. Otherwise, only a component of true velocity would be calculated.

Radar can be used to measure the speed of the following sports: athletes running speed, throwing speed in sports such as baseball, softball and cricket, and in hitting sports such as tennis (service speed), golf (speed swing) and hockey. They are also used to measure hitting speed in boxing.

The limitations of radars are summarized in that they cannot transmit information regarding the position of the object and that they can only measure the maximum speed if the radar is placed directly on the line of the moving object.

The range of the radar varies depending on how far the instrument can be used. Some are able to measure an object moving a mile away.

Speedometer

Speedometers correctly measure the speed of a vehicle. They can now also measure top speed and average speed. It is widely used by cyclists.

On bicycles, speedometers measure the time between each revolution of the wheels. The sensor is placed on the bike, pulsing when the magnet is activated.

Although its operation is similar to the speedometer in cars, the speedometers of bicycles usually work with batteries that must be replaced from time to time.

References

1. Running speed footpods. Recovered from topendsports.com
2. Using radar to measure speed. Recovered from topendsports.com.