Over the summer I emerged my Self’s into the academic literature and collected well over 30 articles on Wheelchair Racing and Equipment design. I especially was interested in Rolling resistance of the racing chair on a rubber track. I did not find any study that tested the rolling resistance of a racing wheelchair on a rubber track (Mondo Track) however I did find a lot of studies testing day chairs on various surfaces and with various types of tires at various loads of weights on the wheelchairs.

During my Lit review I discovered many additional things that might influence rolling resistance such as tire pressure, type of track, hardness of track, type of tires, width of tires, type of wheels, temperature of the tires and track, camber of the wheels, style of pushing, curve versus straightaway pushing. I realized in this process that it is not just as simple as tire pressure and weight of the athlete to determine ideal tire pressure. A very important measurement tool I was introduced by Dr. Colin Higgs was a hardness tester. The rubber hardness tester tells me how hard a track is. During this season I have discovered that some of the tracks are as low as 45 out of 100 and some as high as 80 out of 100. This is a significant difference and I will have to integrate this within my research. During the literature review I have gained so much more appreciation for all the factors that play in just for choosing the ideal tire pressure and it made me realize that sport science is more complex than it seems at first and we Coaches can benefit from trying to really understand the sport by looking at every little detail that might make a difference in making our athletes better.

I plan to write the Literature Review based on the themes that have arisen during the readings. I’m not fully sure about all the themes that I will be covering but it will be in line with the factors that influence rolling resistance and how to measure rolling friction to apply the best set up for an athlete. There are also similar approaches how to test for friction and the goal will be to figure out the best way of measuring rolling friction to discover differences in racing wheelchair set up.