My name is Jens Natrup. I’m here at the Institute of Sport and Exercise Sciences
in the area of kinesiology headed by Heiko Wagner.
I research gymnasts’ gaze behaviour in rotational movements
along their body axis. When there’s a gymnast or springboard diver
spinning through the air, I look at how they orient themselves in air, where do they direct their gaze?
Of course, there’s the scientific aspect, namely, how do eye movements
and head movements coordinate so as to counteract this rotation and allow
the athlete to maintain orientation and be able to see something. Then there’s
the training aspect – in other words, what advice can I give the athlete
so that he can improve his jump or execution.
To measure eye movement, I use an eye-tracking system.
We have cameras focused on the eyes, which means we make
eye videos. With these we can measure ocular movement, and the other tool is a
movement analysis suit. The suit has built-in sensors which provide data
on how exactly the athlete moves through the air. What I find interesting
are the head movements – how the head moves in comparison with the torso or the shoulders.
The data I gathered in Bad Kreuznach were very interesting. That’s where they have an Olympic training centre
for trampoline jumping in Germany. It was very impressive
and I had a lot of fun working and training with
– and studying – the top athletes there. It was so much fun
and extremely fascinating.
I like being a researcher very much, especially
that connection between science and teaching, and later taking that into the classroom, that’s what I find
exciting. Knowing that research can produce something
you can convey in the classroom or use when training athletes.