What is ACA?

AI Coaching Assistant is a virtual sports performance coaching assistant that uses state-of-the-art computer vision and machine learning tools.

This is your invitation to take part in a series of experiments to help us create a new paradigm for coaching Olympic weightlifting athletes.

We are recruiting participants for the following study: “MARKERLESS POSE DATA USE FOR NUMERIC METRIC EXTRACTION, APPLIED AS FEEDBACK IN OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING”

Upon completion of 2 sessions (1 full activity) you will receive a personalised report on your performance. Additionally by participation in any of the activities you will automatically enter a prize draw with a chance to win a £30 gift card.

This study is part of a PhD project (by Gatis Jurkāns) stemming from the Cybernetic Human Lab at Aston University and supported by Gymshark.

TO SIGN UP FOR THE STUDY

Email us with your name and contact details at:
ai.coaching.assistant@gmail.com

And we will get back to you with the next steps for participation.

Thank You for showing interest, we look forward to working with you!

Study Description

This study will have Olympic weightlifting athletes like yourself participating in video-recorded training sessions. Experiments will resemble standard training sessions and the participating athletes will only be asked to perform lifts and assistance movements that they are already highly proficient at.

Sessions will be performed in dedicated gyms with appropriate weightlifting platforms, with cameras capturing the performances. The video data collected of these lifts will be used to generate numerical performance metrics. The focus across all the recording sessions will be on the technique. During some of the recording sessions a weightlifting coach will assess the quality of your technique.

As a thank you participants will receive a personalised report about different aspects of their lifting performance.

The current series of experiments are being run at the following locations:

• Warley Weightlifting Club (Birmingham, United Kingdom)

Criteria for participation

• This study is open to participants aged between 18 to 40 years old:
  • For participants aged between 18 to 30 years of age you must have at least 2 years of experience in the sport of Olympic weightlifting.
  • Participants aged 31 to 40 years old must have at least 5 years of experience in the sport of Olympic weightlifting.
  • Furthermore, you must not be currently recovering from any severe injuries or illnesses that could potentially hinder your weightlifting ability. We would respectfully request that for safety reasons if you are recovering from any injuries or illnesses, you do not proceed to participate in this study.

Origins of ACA

As a fellow weightlifter, I know how incredibly technical Olympic lifts are. When the world pandemic happened most of us realised that there was very little we could do to improve technique when training by ourselves. I wanted to create something that could better help me manage my training and give me data-driven insights into my progression.

If you are interested in the project, you can reach me at: gjurk22@aston.ac.uk