So you wanna be a boxer? Mocap may be the answer

Dedicated to helping youth in his local community, Benjamin Rosser founded Nottingham’s Pythian Club. Through a programme of sports, leadership and music, he inspires young people to develop their skills and grow into contributing members of society. Boxing has played an integral part in this since the clubs' inception in 2014.

When Benjamin introduced Lee Froch, the English, British and European Heavyweight Champion boxer, to Target 3D co-founder Allan Rankin this question was raised ..

Would it be possible to track the data of a professional boxer against young amateur boxers to visibly demonstrate the specific body movements they need to work on to improve their skills?

Image:Pythian Club founder Benjamin Rosser with champion boxer Lee Froch

Three of the Target3D team, equipped with twelve OptiTrackPrime 17W cameras and the Unity Game engine, set off to Nottingham to find out.

First up was Lee Frock. Whilst he performed his warm up, some left jabs, right jabs, skipping and sparring, his full body was being tracked by the OptiTrack system into motive, producing data that showed statistics regarding power, speed, positioning and the angle between joints and limbs.

Next into the ring was the team of 15 amateur boxers, students from the Pythian Club, who were asked to perform the same moves as Frock. Their data was compiled and translated to see how close they were to the pro and, most importantly, the exact areas they can improve on including footwork, positioning and body angles.

Speed of fist and foot tested the tech set up but, after increasing the number of frames per second, the cameras proved to track well and give usable results. The analysis and data will to used to support young people in communities who don't have access to professional boxers or high tech equipment.

Pythian Club founder, Benjamin said, "First and foremost I found Target3D very professional and very knowledgeable and they were able to provide insight into how we could enhance the project. On the day, they arrived early and had everything set up and ready to begin on time and we had a fun and enjoyable day. The professional boxer, Lee, told me afterwards that he'd never experienced anything like it - and I hadn't either!"

Watch mocap technology collide with boxing in our short film about the project:

Looking to track movement in sports or science? Target3D's biomechanics experts can guide you through it - talk to us today.