By ANDREA LAYCOCK
Andrea@newsroom.byu.edu
St. Patrick's Day is a celebration devoted to the luck of the Irish, but BYU student Kathy Thomas is helping the unlucky ones.
Funded by a scholarship from BYU's Office of Research and Creative Activities, Thomas is researching the causes of severe shin splints, also known as medial tibial stress syndrome, in Irish dancers.
Dancers are especially prone to MTSS, an injury that causes pain and inflammation inside the leg along the tibia bone, usually on the lower half of the leg, said Thomas, a senior from Provo, majoring in dance.
Irish dancers often have problems with MTSS because their shoes are too small for inserts, and the constant hopping motion of Irish dancing puts excessive strain on dancers' legs, Thomas said.
Thomas' research is one of the first attempts to understand MTSS as it relates to Irish dancers, as much of the existing research on the subject has predominately been done on runners, Thomas said.
'The motion of runners is different than dancers because runners hit the ground first with their heel, while dancers land on their toes,' Thomas said.
Thomas was motivated to research MTSS for Irish dancers when she suffered from the injury while taking an Irish dance class, she said.
'I took an Irish dance class and had MTSS really badly,' Thomas said. 'I started looking for answers to find out why this was happening to me and found there were no real answers, so I thought if there aren't any answers out there, I'm going to find them myself.'
Thomas' research to monitor the motion of Irish dancers is a complicated, technical process. A look inside Thomas' research lab reveals 15 reflective balls attached to the dancer's lower body, six motion analysis cameras and a set of computers processing incoming information.
The process uses motion analysis cameras to record the position of the reflective balls attached to the dancer's joints. The dancers perform basic Irish dance steps and Thomas looks for patterns in the movement of the dancer's joints.
'By using the reflective balls and the cameras, I can tell where the joint is at any particular moment,' Thomas said.
A force plate is also used to record the amount of pressure that is exerted when the dancer lands. The information that is collected from these processes is analyzed for patterns or similarities between how the dancer's legs and feet respond to the impact of the landing and the incidence of MTSS, Thomas said.
To help further her understanding of the causes of MTSS, Thomas is using the help of her former Irish dance teacher, Tina Shelley.
'Kathy was a student of mine and often complained to me about her shin splints,' said Shelley, a part-time Irish dance teacher at BYU. 'It was this problem of hers that has motivated her to do this research.'
Unlike other Irish dancers, Shelley does not have problems with shin splints. This makes her an ideal candidate for the research project because Thomas is able to compare Shelley's dance moves with other dancers who are more prone to MTSS, Shelley said.
Once Thomas' research is completed, preventative measures can be taken to help alleviate MTSS among Irish dancers, said Pam Musil, an assistant professor of dance at BYU.
'Kathy's research will help enlighten us on what kinds of things would be helpful in preventing shin splints among Irish dancers,' Musil said.