Q.Explain the importance of Biomechanics in the field of sports.

Biomechanics comes from the Greek bios (life) and mechanike (mechanics) — the study of the mechanical principles of living organisms, mainly humans. Within mechanics, biomechanics sits under 'dynamics' (systems with acceleration) rather than 'statics' (systems at rest or constant velocity); dynamics itself splits into kinematics (the geometry of motion — time, displacement, velocity, speed, in a straight or rotary direction) and kinetics (the forces causing or resulting from motion). Sports biomechanics specifically is the quantitative study of athletes and sporting activity — in the textbook's own words, 'the physics of sports' — explaining how and why the human body moves the way it does, often through mathematical modelling, computer simulation and measurement.

Several scholars have defined biomechanics formally: Hatze (1974) frames it as studying the movement of living things using the science of mechanics; another definition calls it the area of study where the knowledge and methods of mechanics are applied to the structure and function of the living human system; and James G. Hay defines it as the science concerned with the internal and external forces acting on a human body and the effects those forces produce.

Biomechanics matters to sport in at least thirteen concrete ways: it is the basis for analysing competitive performance (via gait analysis, cinematography, videography, EMG, accelerometry, dynamometry and electrogoniometry); it supports diagnostic teaching and coaching and athletes' own self-evaluation; it guides the design and evaluation of sports equipment (from spikes and swimming costumes to protective helmets); it helps evaluate and change rules and techniques; it helps select techniques and players suited to a sport (e.g., short players for gymnastics, tall players for volleyball); and it underlies the design of safer exercises and the prevention and rehabilitation of injuries.

This concept covers the meaning, the three quoted scholarly definitions, and the 13 importance-points of biomechanics in sport, and is the natural counterpart to kinesiology — kinesiology is the broad scholarly study of movement, while biomechanics is specifically its mechanics/physics-grounded sub-discipline.