Importance of Biomechanics in Sports

Biomechanics is, above all, the science of movement technique, and it is most useful in sports where technique matters more than sheer physical build. The textbook lists thirteen ways in which biomechanics is important in sports:

1. A basis for analysing the efficient structure of competitive performance. Performance is studied through methods such as gait analysis, cinematography, videography, electromyography (EMG), accelerometers, dynamometry and electrogoniometry, and through the analysis of equipment such as shoes, surfaces and rackets.
2. Practical organisation of the sport's technical profession. Professionals use technology to track performance and health and to show how athletes can improve.
3. Effective organisation of the development of motor abilities — the genetic-based abilities of force, speed, endurance, coordination and flexibility — through systematic training.
4. Diagnostic teaching — discovering an athlete's individual abilities, needs and objectives and monitoring understanding before, during and after a lesson.
5. Diagnostic coaching — examining and evaluating training through systematic assessment, analysis and data collection.
6. Self-evaluation of athletes — letting athletes study every detail of how they run, jump, throw and change direction, so as to perform better and avoid injury.
7. Designing and accepting equipment — helping both design new equipment and measure its efficiency (studs, spikes, swimming costumes, hockey sticks, light protective helmets, and so on).
8. Evaluating and changing rules and regulations — using mechanical analysis of forces to modify rules for athletes' safety and performance.
9. Evaluating new techniques — through qualitative analysis (coaches correcting an action) and quantitative analysis (researchers discovering a better technique with new technology).
10. Selecting techniques by their suitability to the athlete — matching a technique to the individual, such as a bullet start for a short sprinter.
11. Selection of players — using a better understanding of structural and functional qualities to match players to a sport (short players for gymnastics, tall players for volleyball).
12. Designing and developing exercises for the best outcome — improving technique and reducing injury risk, for example choosing a half-squat over a full squat to protect the knee and lower back. …