Biomechanics In Sport
Introduction[edit | edit source]
Sport and Exercise Biomechanics is a title that encompasses the area of science concerned with the analysis of mechanics of human movement. In other words it is the science of explaining how and why the human body moves in the way that it does. In sport and exercise that definition is often extended to also consider the interaction between the performer and his or her equipment and environment. Biomechanics is traditionally divided into the areas of kinetics (concerning the analysis of the forces acting on the body) and kinematics (concerning the analysis of the movements of the body).
The following are the some examples of the areas where Biomechanics is applied to either support performers or solve issues in sport or exercise:
The identification of the optimal technique for enhancing sports performance
The analysis of body loading to determine the safest method for performing a particular sport or exercise task
The assessment of muscular recruitment and loading
The analysis of sport and exercise equipment e.g., shoes, surfaces and racquets.
Biomechanists are generally involved in attempting to either enhance performance or reduce the injury risk in the sport and exercise tasks examined.
Sports biomechanics allows detailed analysis of sports movements. With these results the mechanics of movements can be improved to allow better sports performance and/or less injury risk. Sports biomechanics is often confronted with very special requirements:
Analysis often has to be done at the place of sports performance (in the field)High performance athletes need to get analyzed in competition to get relevant informationResults have to be communicated and be understand by athletes and trainers to make use out of them in training
Sports biomechanics often focuses on improvement of sports performance to reach extraordinary results. Often Olympic athletes get sports biomechanical assessment to reach optimal movement performance.
As athletes and their conditions are very individual, sports biomechanical assessments need to be individual to the athlete and the specific question. Methods used in sport biomechanics can differ and mostly include 2D or 3D kinematics, kinetics, EMG or pressure. A special requirement in high performance sports is the analysis in competition, where no markers or sensors can be used. Especially in this field the unique capabilities of Simi systems have enormous advantages.
