Join Christina and Malinda in a deep dive into the biomechanics of cueing and how the vertical jump has become an excellent tool to assess performance in varsity athletes.
Malinda is a PhD Candidate studying biomechanics at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto. Her research primarily focuses on studying vertical jumps in athletic populations to 1) better understand the movement mechanics as they relate to performance and 2) support practitioners in their training design and program implementation praxis.
While an undergraduate student at UofT, Malinda competed for the women’s varsity field hockey team. She has served as an Assistant Coach with the Varsity Field Hockey team at UofT since 2012
What exactly is biomechanics?
We discuss what biomechanics means in the world of movement. It is essentially the physics of movement. She is really interested in vertical jump and the aspects of movement that get the athlete at their highest jump and how taking a holistic approach to the athlete is really key to understanding outcomes.
The difference between internal and external cues
We look at how certain cues impact performance in the vertical jump and how the effectiveness of cues will differ for each person
Evaluating vertical jump assessments and how we can effectively use them to evaluate athletic performance and assist with the reduction of injuries.
This includes evaluating the process all the way from data collection and analysis procedures to inform practitioners about these strengths and limitations of these assessment tools, to best inform their training and injury prevention praxis.
Misinformation spread through social media
Much of what we do in our research is to teach others to be critical thinkers. We want fellow researchers and practitioners to be mindful of the misinformation that is sometimes pervasive in the strength and conditioning discipline, particularly because of access to social media platforms.
Research opportunity with Sports Information Research Centre (SIRC)
We will work in collaboration with Field Hockey Canada and Field Hockey Ontario to identify benchmark characteristics related to athletic performance between the various age cohorts involved in the female development pathway towards the national team.
Malinda: m.hapuarachchi@mail.utoronto.ca
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