Does the McNeill Alexander model accurately predict maximum walking speed in novice and experienced race walkers？

Background：Mathematicalmodelsproposeleglengthasalimitingfactorindeterminingthemaximumwalkingvelocity.Thisstudyevaluatedtheeffectivenessofaleglength-basedmodelinpredictingmaximumwalkingvelocityinanappliedracewalkingsituation,bycomparingexperiencedandnoviceracewalkersduringconditionswherestrictlynoflighttime（FT）waspermittedandinsimulatedcompetitionconditions（i.e.,FT〈40ms）.Methods：Thirty-fourparticipants（18experiencedandl6noviceracewalkers）wererecruitedforthisinvestigation.AnOptojumpNextsystem（8m）wasusedtodeterminewalkingvelocity,stepfrequency,steplength,groundcontacttime,andFTduringracewalkingoverarangeofvelocities.ComparisonsweremadebetweennoviceandexperiencedparticipantsinpredictedmaximumvelocityandactualvelocitiesachievedwithnoflightandvelocitieswithFT〈40ms.Thetechnicaleffectivenessoftheparticipantswasassessedusingtheratioofmaximumvelocitytopredictedvelocity.Results：Innovices,nosignificantdifferencewasfoundbetweenpredictedandmaximumwalkingspeedswithoutFTbuttherewasasmall5.8%gaininmaximumspeedwhenFT≤40ms.Inexperiencedracewalkers,therewasasignificantreductioninmaximumwalkingspeedcomparedwithpredictedmaximum（p〈0.01）anda11.7%gaininmaximumwalkingspeedwithFT〈40ms.Conclusion：Leglengthwasagoodpredictorofmaximalwalkingvelocityinnovicewalkersbutnotagoodpredictorofmaximumwalkingspeedinwell-trainedwalkerswhoappeartohaveoptimisedtheirwalkingtechniquetomakeuseofnon-visibleflightperiodsoflessthan40ms.Thegaininvelocityabovepredictedmaximummaybeausefulindexofracewalkingproficiency.