By Theresa Fugger
Visma Ski Classics Pro Team BSV IBEX is the first Pro Team to work closely together and develop a new software called Archinisis.
The Swiss-made software helps to analyze a skier’s movement with accuracy and precision.
Coaching for cross-country skiing has remained the same for many years. One coach is responsible for training several athletes at the same time while he is often struggling to focus on the movements and techniques of all athletes at once.
“Based on motion data recorded with a wearable sensor, the company Archinisis has developed a software that can automatically analyze the movement of each skier with unprecedented accuracy and precision. Coaches are now able to follow all of their athletes during their entire training. Ten minutes after a training session they can see all the results and compare the athletes with each other. Within seconds a coach can see where each athlete had difficulties and how many seconds he lost or gained in which section,” explains Benedikt Fasel, founder of Archinisis.
The software does not only help to improve an athletes’ technique and performance during training but can also help to find the best ski with the right wax by computing the motion efficiency and energy spent for selected key sections. Ski testing the day before an event could be revolutionized by this technology.
Already since spring 2019, Markus Walser, Pro Team Director of the Swiss Team BSV IBEX, has worked closely together with Benedikt Fasel in order to test the system practically and gather a large amount of data to develop it further.
Markus Walser, BSV IBEX Pro Team director together with Benedikt Fasel, founder of Archinisis. Photo: Jérémy Patton, Archinisis.
“Archinisis helps us a lot to improve our technique. We can analyze the speed-curve of every single movement cycle (every double pole). We can not only compare the athletes with each other but can also analyze each athlete individually. For me, as a coach, it helps to show my athletes the curves and data during daily technique work. Until we started to work with Archinisis, we were dependent on my knowledge and videos but we had no relevant data,” says Markus Walser.
More information about the new technology can be found here:
https://www.archinisis.ch/cross-country.html
or by watching a TV clip in German here.
Top image. Photo: Jérémy Patton, Archinisis.
