Amber Murphy Makes the Science of Speed Accessible at CompuSport

CompuSport is built on more than 30 years of original research into the mechanics of speed, and its CEO has been part of that research since childhood. Amber Murphy filmed track meets with her father, Dr. Ralph Mann, a 1972 Olympic silver medalist in the 400-meter hurdles. As a teenager, she digitized the film by hand. Now she is the one putting that science to work for coaches and athletes.

Dr. Amber Murphy is the CEO of CompuSport, a sports biomechanics company that helps coaches and athletes improve performance and prevent injury in track and field and team sports. She and her father started it out of a shared love of science and track and field, and she inherited the business after his death. Amber is a member of The Entreprenista League, and her second book, The Science of Speed, puts that research in the hands of coaches and athletes.

Amber has spent the years since those first track meets building a career in sprint biomechanics. This is what it looks like now.

Measuring what makes athletes fast

CompuSport films athletes and turns the footage into 2D and 3D models overlaid directly on their video. High-speed analysis comes with reports and recommendations for better performance and injury prevention, and an AI talent identification assessment helps spot speed potential. The work spans track and field, distance running, football, baseball, bobsled, and other team and winter sports.

“We are well educated in biomechanics, and we use science to improve performance,” Amber says. For the coaches and athletes she works with, every recommendation is based on facts.

Relay speed at Florida A&M

Amber knew the work was paying off when she helped an athlete reach a personal record. The client story she points to now is CompuSport’s work with Garfield Ellenwood II, director of track and field and cross country at Florida A&M University, and the school’s women’s 4x100-meter relay team.

“They made the NCAA championships,” she says.

For Amber, speed and health go together. “It is important to keep improving and to stay healthy,” she says of the coaches and athletes she serves.

The Science of Speed

Amber and her father wrote The Science of Speed together. It covers the block start, sprint mechanics and fatigue, hurdle clearance, distance running, the 4x100 relay, team and winter sports, and the mechanical causes of hamstring and achilles injuries, then closes on talent identification.

The book is meant for coaches and for athletes, and her goal was to make the science behind performance and injury prevention understandable. It follows the 2018 edition of The Mechanics of Sprinting and Hurdling, which she also co-authored with her father.

From the hurdles to a doctorate

Amber competed as a high school and collegiate athlete, running the hurdles in college. She holds a doctorate in exercise science and has spent more than 20 years working with collegiate and professional track and field athletes and collegiate football players. She also brings years of field experience teaching biomechanics on the track.

She built the business while being a wife, a mom, and a student. “Self-confidence goes a long way toward getting things accomplished,” she says.

Asking for help and taking the science further

Amber’s learning lesson for other founders is one she wishes she had known at the start: “You don’t have to be good at everything. Ask for help,” she says.

Next, she wants The Science of Speed to reach more coaches and athletes, and she plans to grow CompuSport’s on-track consulting.

You can connect with Amber on LinkedIn, follow CompuSport on LinkedIn, and find the company’s on-track sessions and The Science of Speed at compusport.org.

If Amber’s approach to making the science of speed accessible resonates, The Entreprenista League is a community of women founders who value connection, shared experience, and practical business insight as they grow. Learn more about The Entreprenista League right here.