Propulsion techniques analysis of wheelchair athletes: a review study

Abstract

Studies about the human movement are largely carried out by researchers that seekimprovements of sports performance. However, some individuals have movements that don’t fitinto pre-established standards. This review aims to present an overview of the literature aboutanalysis of propulsion techniques for wheelchair athletes. A search was realized in databases forarticles produced about the subject between 2000 and 2011, resulting in 65 articles, 9 of which metthe inclusion criteria. The results indicate (a) lack of recent studies, (b) the selected studies focuson the characteristic of motion and how this characteristic influences on variables ranging fromphysiological changes to the performance, (c) the most widely researched modality was the race(d) the images are mostly collected in two dimensions. We suggest further research on the subject,extending the theoretical support for coaches to be able to improve their practices and athletes tooptimize their performance.