This thesis is concerned with quantifying the biomechanics and physiological consequences of sport-specific movements in order to answer the question if atypical movements in badminton result in abnormally large demands that could be linked to the relatively high levels of injuries sustained. An initial study of the movement repertoire used in competitive badminton established that sidestepping (SS), crossover stepping (XS) and lunging movements make an important contribution to the game. These movements are related, within the context of the game, and were viewed as a unit. In order to assess the potential injury risk posed by these atypical movements a series of experiments was performed to record the biomechanical as well as physiological demands of SS, XS and lunging for experienced, inexperienced, male and female badminton players. The first of these studies concerned the kinematics and kinetics of preferred speed SS and XS. This was followed up by an investigation of the electrical activity of 7 muscles of the leading and trailing limb and a comparative assessment of their metabolic demands was performed. The biomechanics of lunging were thereafter investigated, followed by a final investigation of the kinematics of atypical movement use in the competitive setting. The results from these investigations indicate that lateral stepping tasks result in biomechanical demands that are within the range expected for running. An asymmetric contribution of the leading and trailing limb to the gait cycle was identified as well as a shift toward the use of proximal joints for force production. Furthermore, no significant difference in metabolic power between SS, XS and running was identified. Differences in the demands of different lunging movements were observed with implications for both injury prevention and performance enhancement. Overall it was observed that the data recorded in these investigations was in agreement with the competitive, real-life application. Based on the findings in this research it can be concluded that lateral stepping movements in badminton do not appear to expose the participant to abnormally large biomechanical or physiological demands and other factors related to movement may be involved in the relatively high levels of injury sustained.

Cette recherche a pour objet de matérialiser l’expérience corporelle « in situ », sans recours à la conscience, via l’étude de la direction de jeu dans l’activité badminton. L’originalité de l’approche est d’utiliser l’actimétrie (cet outil mesure les accélérations sur les trois plans de l’espace : vertical, antéro-postérieur et médio latéral) comme indicateur de corps mobilisé afin de mettre en perspective le sens en termes d’étapes conatives (mobiles d’action) avec un sens ergonomique ou « sens du mouvement ». Notre cadre conceptuel repose sur une hypothèse ergo-conative fondée sur une approche à la fois contextuelle (le contexte d’activité n’est pas un « déjà là », il est dynamique et résulte d’une co-détermination acteur-contexte) et incorporée de l’action (le sens de l’action est davantage lié aux mobiles qu’aux motifs). Nous montrons qu’en fonction des étapes conatives du joueur en Badminton, le sens qualitatif ou direction du mouvement change : il y a bien une bifurcation de la mobilisation mécanique (en termes d’intensité et de direction spatio-temporelle) correspondant aux transitions entre étapes conatives.L’ergonomie vient donc attester d’une pédagogie du sens. Ce changement du sens en action, l’expérience corporelle « perçue » n’en rend que partiellement compte. L’objectivation de celui-ci via l’actimétrie nous semble porteuse pour des applications pédagogiques concrètes qui respectent le sens de la mobilisation du sujet. / The purpose of this survey is to concretize the physical experiment ''in situ'', without resorting to conscience, via the study of the game direction in the Badminton activity. The novelty of the approach is to use actimetry. Actually, this tool measures speeding up on the three space planes: vertical, antero-posterior and medio-side as an indicator of a mobilized body in order to put into perspective the sense in terms of conative stages (mobiles of action) with an ergonomic sense or ''sense of the movement''. The concept of this research rests on an 'ergo-conative' hypothesis based upon an approach at the same time contextual (the context of activity does not preexist; it is dynamic and results of a co-determination actor-context) and incorporated of the action (the sense of 'action' is more related to the mobiles than to the motives). We show that, according to the conative stages of the Badminton player, the qualitative sense or direction of the movement changes: there is a bifurcation of the mechanical mobilization (in terms of intensity and spatial and temporal direction) corresponding to transitions between conatives steps. Ergonomics is therefore attest to a sense’s pedagogy.The 'received' physical experiment only partially reports this change of the sense in action. The objectification of this change via actimetry seems to us promising for educational applications that respect the sense of the mobilization of the subject.

Full-body three-dimensional kinematic characteristics were determined for the badminton jump smash and the tennis serve in order to investigate contributions to pace and variability. Kinematic (400 Hz) data were collected for a group of badminton and tennis players, using an 18 camera Vicon Motion Analysis System. Each participant performed 24 jump smashes or tennis serves. The best trials - maximal velocity with minimal marker loss - were analysed for each participant using a 18 segment rigid body model customised for each participant using subject-specific segmental properties. Parameters were calculated describing elements of the badminton jump smash and tennis serve technique as well as variability. The effect of these technique parameters on: speed were addressed using stepwise linear regression and on variability using one-way ANOVA. The results suggest that the fastest badminton players had a smaller elbow extension angle at the end of retraction, a larger wrist extension angle at shuttle contact, and a larger time between preparation and shuttle contact; that accounted for 84% of variation in shuttle speed. The results also showed that variability in the badminton smash was caused by differences in body placement, shuttle location on the racket at impact and movement timings. In the tennis serve, linear regressions showed that there were no variables significant to speed when players hit to the right and left centre court lines. When players hit in the advantage court trunk rotation at the racket lowest point key instant could explain 35.2% of the variation in speed, and when hitting towards the deuce court timing from the end of retraction to ball contact explained 33.6% of ball speed. The results show that there are differences in technique between the badminton jump smash and the tennis serves especially in the first half of the sporting actions.