Estimating Athletes’ Centre of Mass as Presented on Ancient Greek Pottery Depictions

Andreas G. Bourantanis¹, Nikitas N. Nomikos^2, , Constantinos C. Trompoukis³ and Weijie W. Wang¹

¹Department of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery, Institute of Motion Analysis and Research, The Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, The University of Dundee, Dundee, UK

²School of Physical Education & Sport Science, Medical School, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of Health Sciences and Sports

³Department History of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Greece

Cite this paper:
Andreas G. Bourantanis, Nikitas N. Nomikos, Constantinos C. Trompoukis and Weijie W. Wang. Estimating Athletes’ Centre of Mass as Presented on Ancient Greek Pottery Depictions. American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2022; 10(1):12-16. doi: 10.12691/ajssm-10-1-3

Abstract

Combat sports pose a discrete thesis in terms of biomechanics among the majority of the sport activities. This research aims to identify and study the position of Centre of Mass (CoM) in ancient Greek Athletes who participated in combat sports, especially in Pankration. This project was carried out by analyzing figures drawn on ancient pottery. The study calculated the CoM using innovative software and programming: OpenPose, Sublime text, Python programming language, and Matplotlib library. According to the results, the study succeeded (for the first time globally) in calculating the CoM of ancient Pankratiasts during the contests.

Keywords:
Pankration boxing wrestling athlete centre of mass biomechanics anatomy

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