It does not work insists Didier Seyfried

At Roland Garros at the end of his game in the first round, Richard Gasquet, one of the best French hopes of tennis, ran on IBM technicians. The company, partner of the tournament for twenty-one years, immediately provided, as to each player, the DVD of his game. He and his coach were thus analyze part depending on the type of blow (winner, setback...) or at a specific time. On the same support all statistics were obviously compiled: winning shots, faults, zones of strike... Interesting support for the tactical aspect of the game. Because high level games are often "on four or five points that the big players negotiate perfectly, assured Guy Forget, Captain of the team of Davis Cup France." "We are still in the infancy of these techniques.

Analyze in 3D

All experts share this analysis. Whether it's tennis, athletics or swimming, technology now plays a leading role. The Dartfish software, for example, developed from a technology of the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, may disrupt the use of video in the sport. The video stream is directly exploitable on a laptop, and usable for training images. Several features help enrich them: decomposition of motion, superposition of the paths of several sports, calculation of angles or trajectories.

From next year, the Dartfish company promises even a new "videogrammetry" application that will allow the software to achieve accurate measurements from any video. "He for example show the number of not made by a runner on a 100 metres", explains Jean-Marie Ayer, the President of the society. Popularized by the film, the motion capture systems, that allow to redial a sporting gesture in 3 dimensions, were even more impressive. A little as if the athlete was filmed by a multitude of cameras located around him. In tennis, a service can be decomposed, analyzed under all its seams. Team Lagardere, a centre created last year on research and innovation for the sport of high level, will equip a tennis court. At the national Institute of sport and physical education (Insep), we want to go even further with new sensors developed by Leti, a laboratory of CEA (see next page).

Determination of training

The advent of technologies is linked to the professionalisation of sport, with its dark side which rhymes with suitcases in pharmacy, doping and blood manipulation. That confirms one of the best specialists in doping, Gerard Dine (see next page). But the technology is also known to be "clean" and is essential. Most experts say, training, the rule is now given to the quality. "Of the 1970s to the 1990s, the performance have improved with the increase in the amount of training." "Today, we reach the limits", stresses Christian Miller, head of the centre of expertise, evaluation and programming Team Lagardère.

Running is more symptomatic. "My time, it ran 250 miles a week." "Today, 140-160, because it removed the unnecessary kilometres", confirms Dominique Chauvelier, quadruple champion of France of the marathon between 1981 and 1993. In a few years, rugby, him also completely changed, becoming both faster and more athletic. Result: training evolves considerably, combining strength which was hardly in the tradition and endurance work.

The quality research requires technologies that allow to measure, calculate, therefore analyse and compare: amplitude of a wake, frequency of arm of a swimmer, a long, respiratory capacity jump angle of a young athlete... Most of the top athletes see their performance tested in the laboratory. After training, just follow the cardiac frequency indicated by a new "to be exactly in the desired pattern that matches the type of effort that it wants to run", said Frédéric Belaubre, France triathlon champion. Thanks to miniaturization, everything moves from the laboratory to the field of sport, or even the full nature. Premiere world, the laboratory of physiological studies of the University of Evry (Lephe) has thus to the same type of tests on mountaineers, equipped with portable equipment during their ascent of mont Blanc.

Measure and compare

The technology is of course also engulfed in weight rooms, where the devices are equipped Ergometer measuring the speed at which the individual raises its bars. Team Lagardere grows EADS (a subsidiary of the Lagardère Group) to develop accelerometers. "It's the acceleration which is the actual index of the quality of the work," stresses Christian Miller. On the stages of athletics, force plates measure the quality of the impulse from the jumpers. Is associated with photoelectric cells and video cameras. The interest Precisely calculate the magnitude of the heels of the runner of 100 metres or obtain the ideal momentum race for long jumper. A distance to arrive as quickly as possible on the Board of appeal and that it obtained previously by trial and error.

Of course, the good coach detects this to the naked eye. Technology today allows it to measure precisely, archive, compare. Even in the competition, the technology is at work. Thus, Amisco system allows, from several video cameras placed around the field, provide coaches of football teams of the activity of each player statistics: number of played balls, kilometres travelled, speed, acceleration... If the system has been adapted to rugby, the software has difficulty because of the phases of consolidation, in which players are in contact with each other. Will we soon see athletes wear tiny card chips to situate them automatically on the ground The sporting regulations prohibited today. "The institution is always reluctant to novelty." "But it will happen there," said Max Godemet, the French rugby Federation.

Make the right choices

Therefore, in an environment where it is mostly in the era of the book spiral and the whistle, the information processing will become paramount. It is more only to navigate between good video files, will be whether find medical records, the history of performance, the data related to the training... Team Lagardere thus has an agreement with the Central School of Paris, to work on the development of a database of the athlete.

Then, will the computer or the researcher take the cap of the coach "There is not, in my view, built from only science training method". We intervene at the level of assistance to the decision. I do not work on the creation of models, considers Christian Miller. Never no biomechanist could not imagine the technique of Fosbury high jump, with this race curve.

Even the most fervent followers of the technique, as Philippe Gouard, the French Sailing Federation DTN, return: "It collects a lot of information." The real question is whether hierarchize them and interpret them. "It does not say anything at the Insep. "It was thought a moment that could simulate with pools counter-current swimming." "It does not work", insists Didier Seyfried.

In the future, the simulation will bring perhaps new solutions but will never be perfect. "Today, it seeks to work in trying to integrate the parameters of competition, with the stress, the context." "Cannot ignore this because it is crucial," said Philippe Gouard. Indeed, the technology did not prevent Richard Gasquet lost its second match against the Argentine David Nalbandian.