Full body joint angle characteristics of elite endurance runners using principal component analysis

It is very important to clarify the differences in full body joint kinematics between elite endurance runners (elite runners) and novice runners for developing gait retraining regimes. This study collected motion capture data of runners and performed principal component analysis (PCA) for the data. The PCA revealed that only the principal component score of principal component vector 1 (PCV 1) was significantly larger for elite runners. Stick figure animation based on the analysis indicates differences in full body joint angles and is available as a gait retraining regime for novice runners.