Dr. John Kelley MMath. PhD.

Dr John Kelley is a research fellow at the Centre for Sports Engineering Research (CSER). John's research focuses on developing software and hardware solutions for elite sport performance analysis. John is originally from a mathematics background. After studying a Masters Mathematics at the University of Sheffield, John joined the department for his PhD in 2008.  His PhD was sponsored by the International Tennis Federation and the aim was to develop a method to measure ball spin rates in match play tennis. He has developed several video analysis software tools based on the ideas and skills from his PhD. 

John managed a HEIF funded project to install technology at the Sheffield Hallam University City Athletics Stadium to create a Technology Demonstrator Hub. This allows coaches, athletes and the general public have access to some of the performance analysis technology developed for elite sport.  In addition John won the UK Sport Ideas4Innovation Garage Award in 2011, which provided a £25,000 research grant to work with British Swimming. John currently works with the English Institute of Sport (EIS) through their Innovation Partnership with CSER and with the SportScotland Institute of Sport (SIS) through their Special Projects partnership with CSER. This involves developing software and hardware solutions for elite sport performance analysis. 

John has worked with a wide range of sports, including Athletics, Canoeing, Curling, Bowls, Sailing, Skeleton Bob, Speed Skating and Weight Lifting. In addition to research John leads MSc Numerical Programming in Sports Engineering module and applied computing research theme group, alongside supervising several PhD students.

Areas of interest:

• Sports engineering
• Image and video processing
• Programming (.NET / Matlab)
• Computer vision
• Video capture

MSc Sports Engineering:

• Numerical Programming in Sports Engineering (module leader)

Research centre:

• Centre for Sports Engineering Research (CSER)

Research theme group:

• CSER Applied Computing (lead)

Current research projects:

• Persuasive technologies in elite sport coaching
• Quantifying and modelling of tennis ball and racket impacts and control
• SpinProf – A match analysis software tool for the ITF
• Spin Rig – A software tool incorporated into the ITF ball testing laboratory

Collaborators and sponsors:

• English Institute of Sport Innovation and Technology Partnership
• SportScotland Institute of Sport
• International Tennis Federation
• The Football Association

Journal articles

Fitzpatrick, A., Stone, J., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. (2021). Investigating the most important aspect of grass court tennis: short points. International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching. http://doi.org/10.1177/1747954121999593

Dunn, M., Chiu, C.-.Y., Kelley, J., & Haake, S. (2020). Technologies to Aid Public Understanding in Running Performance. Proceedings, 49 (1), e26. http://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2020049026

Fowler Davis, S., Barnett, D., Kelley, J., & Curtis, D. (2019). Potential for digital monitoring to enhance wellbeing at home for people with mild dementia and their family carers. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. http://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-190844

Fitzpatrick, A., Stone, J., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. (2019). Important performance characteristics in elite clay and grass court tennis match-play. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport. http://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2019.1685804

Shafizadeh, M., Wheat, J., Kelley, J., & Nourian, R. (2019). Stroke survivors exhibit stronger lower extremity synergies in more challenging walking conditions. Experimental Brain Research. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-019-05560-9

Fitzpatrick, A., Stone, J., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. (2019). A simple new method for identifying performance characteristics associated with success in elite tennis. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 14 (1), 43-50. http://doi.org/10.1177/1747954118809089

Driscoll, H., Hudson, C., Dunn, M., & Kelley, J. (2018). Image based stroke-rate detection system for swim race analysis. Proceedings, 2 (6), 286-292. http://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2060286

Goff, J., Kelley, J., Hobson, C., Seo, K., Asai, T., & Choppin, S. (2017). Creating drag and lift curves from soccer trajectories. European Journal of Physics, 38 (4). http://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6404/aa6fcd

Hext, A., Heller, B., Kelley, J., & Goodwill, S. (2017). Relay exchanges in elite short track speed skating. European Journal of Sport Science, 17 (5), 503-510. http://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2016.1276219

Reed, H., Stanton, A., Wheat, J., Kelley, J., Davis, L., Rao, W., ... Francese, S. (2015). The Reed-Stanton press rig for the generation of reproducible fingermarks : towards a standardised methodology for fingermark research. Science & justice, 56 (1), 9-17. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2015.10.001

Driscoll, H., Kelley, J., Kirk, B., Koerger, H., & Haake, S. (2015). Measurement of studded shoe–surface interaction metrics during in situ performance analysis. Sports Engineering, 18 (2), 105-113. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12283-014-0163-1

Nicolaides, A., Elliott, N., Kelley, J., Pinaffo, M., & Allen, T. (2013). Effect of string bed pattern on ball spin generation from a tennis racket. Sports Engineering, 16 (3), 181-188. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12283-013-0118-y

Conference papers

Hext, A., Heller, B., Kelley, J., & Goodwill, S. (2016). Measuring straight time in elite short track speed skating relays. Procedia Engineering, 147, 622-626. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.06.258

Higham, D., Kelley, J., Hudson, C., & Goodwill, S. (2016). Finding the optimal background subtraction algorithm for EuroHockey 2015 video. Procedia Engineering, 147, 637-642. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.06.261

Dunn, M., & Kelley, J. (2015). Non-invasive, spatio-temporal gait analysis for sprint running using a single camera. Procedia Engineering, 112, 528-533. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.07.237

Goodwill, S., Spurr, J., Kelley, J., & Haake, S. (2014). Measuring the inertial properties of a tennis racket. Procedia Engineering, 72, 569-574. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.06.098

Kelley, J. (2014). A camera calibration method for a hammer throw analysis tool. Procedia Engineering, 72 (72), 74-79. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.06.002

Wiart, N., Kelley, J., James, D., & Allen, T. (2011). Effect of temperature on the dynamic properties of soccer balls. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part P: Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology, 225 (4), 189-198. http://doi.org/10.1177/1754337111411644

Choppin, S.B., & Kelley, J. (2010). Generating football Cd profiles without a wind tunnel. Procedia engineering, 2 (2), 2449-2454. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2010.04.014

Kelley, J., Choppin, S.B., Goodwill, S.R., & Haake, S. (2010). Validation of a live, automatic ball velocity and spin rate finder in tennis. Procedia engineering, 2 (2), 2967-2972. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2010.04.096

Kelley, J., Goodwill, S., Capel-Davies, J., & Haake, S. (2008). Ball spin generation at the 2007 Wimbledon Qualifying Tournament. ENGINEERING OF SPORT 7, VOL 1, 571-+. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-2-287-09411-8_67

Kelley, J., Goodwill, S., Capel-Davies, J., & Haake, S. (2008). Ball spin generation at the 2007 Wimbledon qualifying tournament. The engineering of sport 7, 571-578. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-2-287-99054-0_67

Shafizadeh, M., Wheat, J., Kelley, J., & Davids, K. (2017). Effects of different walking constraints on motor synergy in people with chronic stroke. In European Society of Biomechanics Conference, 3 July 2017 - 7 July 2017.

Book chapters

Kelley, J., Higham, D., & Wheat, J. (2016). Technology for studying interpersonal coordination in social collectives. In Passos, P., Davids, K., & Chow, J.Y. (Eds.) Interpersonal Coordination and Performance in Social Systems. (pp. 305-322). Routledge

Theses / Dissertations

Karditsas, H.E. (2020). Large-Scale Method for Identifying the Relationships between Racket Properties and Playing Characteristics. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Goodwill, S., Choppin, S., & Kelley, J. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00359

Hext, A. (2019). Measuring relay exchange kinematics in short-track speed skating using a multi-camera network. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Goodwill, S.

Higham, D.W. (2018). Extracting field hockey player coordinates using a single wide-angle camera. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Goodwill, S., Kelley, J., & Hudson, C.

Kelley, J. (2011). Measuring ball spin rates in match play tennis. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Haake, S., & Goodwill, S.

Media

Mcinerney, C., & Kelley, J. (2016). Simone Biles: defying the laws of physics? Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Millennium Mathematics Project, University of Cambridge: https://plus.maths.org/content/simone-biles

Current supervised PhD students:

• Fitzpatrick, A., Parameters relating to success in elite tennis: what should we coach?
• Hext, A., The use of persuasive technologies in elite sport coaching
• Karditsas, H., Modelling of tennis ball impacts on tennis rackets
• Sotheran, A. Real-time objective feedback in springboard diving training

Completed supervised PhD students:

• Hudson, C., Automated tracking of swimmers in the clean swimming phase of a race, August 2015 
• Higham, D., Extracting Field Hockey Player Coordinates using a Single Wide-Angle Camera, December 2017
• Spurr, J., Statistically modelling tennis racket impacts with six degrees of freedom, September 2017

 Completed postgraduate examinations:

• MPhil Internal - 2
• MPhil External - 0
• PhD Internal - 2
• PhD External - 0

Dr John Kelley is a research fellow at the Centre for Sports Engineering Research. John's research focuses on developing software and hardware solutions for elite sport performance analysis. He has worked with a wide range of Olympic sports, including Athletics, Canoeing, Curling, Sailing, Skeleton Bob, Speed Skating and Weight Lifting. He also works on projects for the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre including a research project with parkrun. In addition to research John leads MSc Numerical Programming in Sports Engineering module and applied computing research theme group, alongside supervising several PhD students. 

The Centre for Sports Engineering Research (CSER) is led by Dr David James. It is the world's largest academic group in sports engineering and an internationally renowned centre of excellence for research and knowledge transfer. The centre's work is based on four research disciplines; applied computing, biomechanics, design engineering, and skill acquisition. In each area, researchers develop fundamental knowledge and deliver applied solutions to enhance athletic performance, reduce injury and promote physical activity.  

CSER works in partnership with many sport, health and commercial organisations. We are immensely proud of our work with Team GB Olympic, and Paralympic athletes, and we enjoy research partnerships with global organisations such as the International Tennis Federation, FIFA, and Adidas.

Areas of expertise:

• Sports engineering
• Image and video processing
• Programming (.NET / Matlab)
• Computer vision
• Video capture