Applied Sport Mechanics

Applied Sport Mechanics, Fourth Edition, helps undergraduate students understand how the fundamental laws of human movement affect athletes’ performances. Foundational principles of kinetics, kinematics, and sports technique are clearly presented and then explored through a variety of applied scenarios. What’s New This latest edition builds on the success of the previous editions (formerly titled Sport Mechanics for Coaches), and offers much new material: An array of updated pedagogical aids, including a glossary and chapter objectives to reinforce learningA full-color design for more engaging visual aidsReorganized content into two parts and 13 chapters to more readily fit the topics into a typical semester course structureExpanded sidebars that apply concepts directly to sport Content Organization Part I, which houses the first 10 chapters or 10 weeks, focuses on the fundamentals of sport mechanics. Major topics covered include the anatomy and fundamentals of sport mechanics, linear motion and linear kinetics in sport, angular motion and angular kinetics in sport, stability and instability, sport kinetics, and moving through fluids. Part II, which contains the final three chapters, helps students apply the information they learned in part I. Chapters 11 and 12 explain how to observe and analyze an athlete’s technique and how to correct errors. Students learn how to break a skill into phases and what to look for in each phase. They also learn the mechanical principles that will help them correct the errors. Chapter 13 explores mechanics in a range of sport skills and techniques, including sprinting, jumping, swimming, lifting, throwing, and kicking. Students learn that technique and mechanics are inseparable. The chapters also contain two helpful types of sidebars: At a Glance sidebars summarize difficult content with bulleted lists, and Application to Sport sidebars bring concepts to life, showing how they work in sport.