Looking at the cluster of shops in Amherst, Mass., you would never think that a company based there had helped an Olympic gold medalist improve his performance. Its sign, COMPUTERIZED BIOME

CHANICAL ANALYSIS, INC., even

baffles the town's Ph.D.s, and there are hundreds of them around. Even the stores that flank it are mystified. A counterman at the adjacent sandwich shop thinks "a bunch of mad scientists are doing something strange in the place."

True - scientists do work there, but they are not mad. In fact, businessmen from Los Angeles and New York, from Canada, West Germany, Greece, Finland, and Israel pass through CBA's door, seeking a unique service.

Computerized Blomechanical Analysis, Inc., is the first research company in the world organized to analyze human motion. And it may be the only one. Both professional and amateur athletes go there for help. An analysis of the way they run, swing a bat, or kick a ball can make them perform better or avoid an injury.

Athletes are filmed in action.

After the film passes through special tracing equipment, one frame at a time, it is fed into a high speed computer, which spews out a graphic report. The readouts give a quantitative measurement of motion, as well as the direction of force, acceleration, and velocity of specific parts of the body. In other words, the contribution of each body segment to the whole motion is measured. With this information, ('BA scientists determine what is needed to perfect an athlete's performance. Using medical data, they know at what point motion begins to damage human tissue.

"Back in 1972, New England Patriots coaches came to us," says Ann Penny, CBA'S president, "with films of fullback Sam Cunningham. They wanted him analyzed. We told them that because Cunningham had such powerful thighs, he was prone to hamstring pulls. About two weeks later Cunningham was on the injury list, with a pulled hamstring.

"Our Director of Research, Gideon Ariel, studied Kansas City Royals pitcher Steve Busby's form and discovered that though he was

getting maximum velocity on the ball, he was going to have knee trouble because there was too much stress on it. Royals' management was flabbergasted because they were trying to keep Busby's knee trouble secret ... they had him on the trading block."

Sports equipment outfits approached (BA for help with design of shoes, body-building devices, even balls. Recently, Spaulding engineers sought CBA's advice on how to develop a tennis ball that would be easier to control when it hits the racquet. They got what they were looking for and are promoting it throughout the country.

"We are now working on a number of athletic shoes for different companies," says Dr. Ariel. "We've been able to convince some of the enlightened companies that each sport requires special footwear. For example, shoes used for jumping should be designed differently from shoes used for running or for playing football. Different motion and force is required for each sport .... Ideally, each athlete's shoe should be custom-made because everyone is different."

THE NEW ENGLANDER May 1977