The Walker Center will provide coaches, trainers, and their athletes the tools needed to:

• Test and evaluate an athlete's performance and improvement
• Assist coaches and trainers in improving their techniques and their use of scientific information
• Determine the most effective training methods for an individual athlete's needs and potential Guide athletes toward specific sporting events which are suited to their physiological abilities
• Better educate sports administrators to develop more effective and cost efficient programs

The following biomechanical, physiological testing,and evaluative services may be provided by the IHPC for your athletes depending on your needs and requests:

Physiological Testing

Physiological testing provides valuable information about the athlete's physical abilities, training status, athletic potential, and responses to various training regimens. Athletes and coaches can use the test results to improve training regimens and athletic performance. The Center has the capability to perform many state-of-the-art physiological tests. The coach and Walker Center personnel can identify the specific tests that will produce the greatest improvements in each athlete. The following tests are available and can be tailored to specific sports and athletes.

Treadmill Tests to determine:

• Maximal oxygen consumption indicates the relative cardiovascular fitness of an individual athlete and thus allow a coach and athlete to tailor a training program to increase fitness
• Physiological economy during endurance exercise  tells an athlete or coach the energy expended at or near race pace and thus allow them to pinpoint areas of weakness or strength in the athlete which can be further developed or better exploited
• Ventilatory/lactate threshold estimates appropriate race pace for an endurance athlete and also is a strong predicator of endurance performance, and can be used to prescribe appropriate training intensity
• Running power/maximal running speed indicates performance potential in middle distance and distance running events
• Anaerobic power determines an athlete's ability to work and exert energy over a short, fixed amount of time, which is predictive of explosive athletic performance such as in sprints, shot put, long jump, and other sports.

Skinfolds Thickness, Hydrostatic Weighing, Blood Chemistry and Self Reports to determine:

• Body composition provides an accurate measure of fat and lean mass, both of which are vital aspects of performance

Muscle Biopsy to determine:

• Skeletal muscle tissue characteristics indicates the skeletal muscles' ability to produce energy, either aerobically or anaerobically, additionally muscle fiber composition will indicate whether an athlete has fast twitch or slow twitch muscles, and thus is naturally predisposed to be a sprint/power athlete, or be better advised toward endurance events

Blood Testing to determine:

• Blood status measures blood sodium, potassium, creatine kinase, hematocrit, hemoglobin content, hormones, blood lipids, - indicates possible deficiencies and possibly aid in diagnosing overtraining/overstress in athletes

Dietary Recall to determine:

• Nutritional status and dietary counseling needs  provides information to athletes and coaches so that more optimum diets may be developed and followed to enhance training and performance

Biomechanical Testing

Biomechanical testing provides valuable information about human neuromuscular-skeletal function. Athletes and coaches can use the test results to improve training regimens and athletic performance and to reduce injury potentials. The tests are designed to measure the athlete's power and movement capabilities. The biomechanical tests employed at the Center identify maximal power output and its development, training protocols to increase muscle strength and power, muscle balance and coordination, and movement techniques to improve performance. The following tests are available and can be tailored to specific sports and athletes.

Isokinetic and Electromyographic (EMG) Testing to determine:

• Maximal muscle strength in a targeted muscle- provides a valid indicator for performance and injury potential, and correlates with psychological measures of vigor and aggression. Can identify progression of strength development in a targeted muscle group over a series of tests.
• Bilateral isokinetic leg strength - Another assessment of potential for injury targets muscle balance in the lower extremities. Many athletes suffer from injuries in the hamstring muscle groups. Hamstring injury has been related to a weakness of these muscles per se, to a relative weakness compared with the knee extensors, and to muscle strength differences between legs. These tests will identify within and between legs imbalances in muscle strength.
• Bilateral isokinetic leg strength with EMG - Muscle imbalances can be caused by aberrations in the neural activation of the muscle. These tests use sophisticated surface electromyography (EMG) techniques that help identify potential problems with neural activation of the muscles involved in the injury.
• Maximal power and decay of maximal power (fatigue profile) allows coaches and athletes to determine the precise number of repetitions that can be performed without significant fatigue, and also can provide on-line computer graphics on the athlete's rate of fatigue and muscle endurance
• Neuromuscular efficiency and muscle electrical activity provides valuable information about neuromuscular efficiency and thus can provide accurate information regarding an athlete's increased efficiency or, conversely, undesirable and less efficient characteristics of technique

Force Platform Testing to determine:

• Ground reaction forces produced during training and athletic performance an extremely useful indicator of successful skill execution, combined with other tests, this can be used to evaluate training exercises, or, in some case, target skills like sprint starts, jumps of various types, and lower extremity muscle performance
• Mechanical power in lower extremities during the commonly used squat exercise. This method enables us to compute the optimal range of weights an athlete should use as conditioning stimulus to produce maximum power and improve performance.

Motion Analysis to determine:

• Qualitative and quantitative evaluations of performance technique provides documented feedback to athletes and coaches on the execution of specific sport skills enables slow motion analysis of sport techniques

Physical Therapy Screening to determination injury potential:

• Physical therapy examination - A certified physical therapist evaluates each athlete. This screening identifies potential sources for injuries. A physical therapist will evaluate each athlete's posture, skeletal alignment of the lower extremity, and musculoskeletal flexibility.
• Rear foot motion analysis and lower extremity function in running - Inappropriate timing of joint actions in the lower extremity can also cause injuries. High speed video motion analysis is performed on how the foot strikes the ground during running and the test determines if the movements in the foot and ankle joints are properly synchronized with the movements of the knee joint. Pronation and supination in the foot are evaluated in runners.

Additional tests will be designed as appropriate for a specific sport.