Five years ago, the Australian moguls team did some testing in Jindabyne, near the ski fields in alpine New South Wales. Sports science is an advanced discipline and elite athletes are often being poked and prodded, or put through their paces on treadmills hooked up to elaborate machines. But this testing was different. The scientists were not measuring physical output, nor requiring athletes to push themselves to the limit. Instead, they were seeking to ascertain less tangible characteristics: spatial orientation and movement control, including proprioception – the so-called “sixth-sense”.
It was new technology and, in the sporting context, largely unproven. Jakara Anthony was one of the athletes to participate in the testing. At the time still a teenager, Anthony was a recent addition to the national mogul squad. She had not yet won any major competitions, but on that day, Anthony scored off the chart.
