Ground reaction force estimation to assess football player movement on hybrid turfs

There are several people I would like to thank for their assistance, support and guidance throughout this research project. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisors Dr Marcus Dunn, Dr Ben Heller and Prof David James for all your time, the continued support, advice and knowledge provided over the last three years that helped me achieving this work and improving as a researcher. This gratitude extends to all members of the Sports Engineering Research Group at Sheffield Hallam University, in particular to Dr John Hart for the design of the sensor mount frame. I am grateful to adidas for the sponsorship of this project. In particular, I would like to thank Harald Koerger, Patrick Henning-Bortmes, Heiko Schlarb and KarstenWestphal. Also thank you to Marc Lamka for the help during the first data collection and to both Marc and Steven, without you it would have not been possible to reach a good cohort of participants for my final study. Furthermore, I would like to thank Labosport for sharing their Scoreplay dataset and allowing me to borrow the AA test device for six weeks of testing in Germany. These mechanical test data provided important information for this work. Also thanks to David Rigby and Tom for teaching me how to use the mechanical test devices. Apart from the people directly involved with the research, I would like to thank all my friends, both those I known for years and all the great people I met during this PhD journey. Thank you for all the laughs, chats, coffee breaks and for letting me know I can always count on your support. A huge thank goes to Linda and Ben for making me feel part of a family during these months of COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, but most importantly, thanks to my family. Thanks to my brother and my grandma for being always supportive and believing in me, and especially to my parents for all your love and support, without you I would not be the person I am now and I would have not been able to get where I am.