Announcing the world’s first and only standardised, commercially available system for measuring the power generated initially in impact sports like boxing and martial arts.

Strike Research is a new UK based, high-tech product, research and development organisation, working initially in the field of applied sport science. Strike Research develops and markets direct and through licensees it's ‘own-design’ range of equipment used by sportsmen, martial artists, the police, the military, gym equipment manufacturers and the pub/bar/arcade games industry.

At the heart of the system is Strike Research’s patented invention known as StrikeMate (GB10 19458.7, pending) providing science-based motivation and training through the measurement of impact power, its accuracy and speed. A conscious decision was made at the outset to design a cheap, simple solution capable of measuring the actual power generated (which is highly indicative of the actual damage done to the recipient) during an impact, from punches, strikes, and kicks rather than force. This overcomes the main problem associated with the historical approach of measuring force, namely; that the force generated is subjective, being dependent on the size of the contact area of the strike and the hardness* of the material being struck, thereby making comparisons between studies  meaningless. By measuring kinetic energy (power) with a standardised product we can for the first time allow meaningful comparisons to be made, as the characteristics of the item being struck are always the same. Following literally years of research with real impacts, varying from short and sharp to sustained and penetrating this revolutionary invention captures the actual peak power generated. The resulting impact pad design (StrikeMate) requires little investment in tooling and is very cheap and extremely simple to mass-produce. Despite this, it is; small, portable, replicable, calibrated, tactile and safe (inherently compressible) and scientifically proven.

StrikeMate is a complete integrated system designed to professional standards for training and measuring improvements in a wide range of impact sports, initially martial arts and boxing, where it is also an ideal partner when used as part of an accelerated learning or sport science programme.  StrikeMate also has similar potential with soccer, rugby, American football and baseball, where no such systems exist. Finally it has huge potential as an alternative to existing punching/boxing type games in arcades/pubs/bars, where current products allegedly measure speed and not power, and as such really are for ‘amusement only’ and finally as a new piece of  gym equipment in sports / health clubs and gymnasiums. Click here to see how SrtikeMate could potentially be adapted for these markets.

Used in conjunction with a standard personal computer, users of this calibrated system (the implication of this is that they are all the same) will be able to compare their power in real time against others within their organisation, in other parts of the country and across the world via their own closed social networks.

StrikeMate was invented by the organisation’s director, Kevin Franklin, a black-belt Shukokai karate instructor, with 35 years’ experience of product development. The co-directors are Bob Cooke and Alex Barrett, science graduates who, between them, have 50 years’ experience of electronics research and development.

After more than two years work developing a calibration methodology, testing it to destruction and field trials, the company now has its first production run available for sale, evaluation and demonstration.

Strike Research is looking for partners interested in buying licences, giving them the exclusive rights to produce and market StrikeMate within specific markets and territories, including access to our development of ‘pay as you go’ via the internet.