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Sports Biomechanics: The Basics: Optimising Human Performance

Sports Biomechanics: The Basics is targeted at students, athletes, and fitness professionals involved in the field of sports biomechanics. It aims to present an easy-to-read with minimal equations background to the scientific principles underpinning sports biomechanics, and their application using real-world examples in athletic performance. It goes a long way to achieving these aims and coaches and athletes in particular should enjoy this book, finding that it gives a more understandable and applied background to sports biomechanics compared with many existing texts. For the student audience, the role of this book is possibly less clear. It should benefit undergraduates struggling with the mathematical elements of their biomechanics course, and for those coming into sports biomechanics at postgraduate level from a different discipline it can provide an interesting background to the subject. The book is written with those that struggle with mathematics in mind; those not in this category may find the preference for sentences rather than equations simply annoying. It does not particularly present itself as a key undergraduate textbook on a number of counts: the content does not conform to a typical undergraduate sports biomechanics course; there are few questions to allow students to quantitatively test their understanding; and there is no summary of key learning points at the end of each chapter. Therefore, it is unlikely to become a core university text. This book clearly describes the science behind sports biomechanics in simple terms and how it can be applied in practice, and as such is better designed for those involved in the application, rather than the study, of sports biomechanics. The book is divided into 17 chapters, each devoted to a single area of biomechanics. The range of topics covered is impressively comprehensive, including: linear and angular kinematics; Newtonian physics; linear and angular kinetics; momentum, work, energy, and power; friction and collisions; fluid and hydrodynamics; and the kinetic chain. Each chapter follows a similar structure, starting with a real-world sports performance question and the learning objectives, which help to focus the attention of the reader for the information that follows. Good use of figures, and boxes to convey details on topics related but not fundamental to the main text, help to make the main information section easy to follow. The answer to the original question is discussed at the end together with further examples of where the information could be used. Finally, a list of useful equations and related websites is given. The chapters are typically between 10 and 15 pages long, which greatly helps with the overall aims of the book; information is delivered in small manageable chunks and the question–knowledge–answer sandwich structure is not overfilled. The questions cover a wide range of sports from the fundamental skills of running faster and jumping higher, to athletics, volleyball, cricket and baseball, rugby, cycling, swimming, golf, netball and basketball. This is another good feature of the book, as it highlights the diverse range of sports that can benefit from even relatively simple biomechanical analyses. More in-depth discussions are included in four special topics sections. The most generically useful of these covers how to conduct basic video analysis. The remainder, on statistics, centre of mass calculation, and lift force, are likely to appeal only to a more specialized audience. Also included is an introduction to using Excel spreadsheets to conduct biomechanics analysis. For Excel novices, this may not be the best place to start learning how to use the software, but for those with some experience in Excel it is a good addition as it opens the door to simple quantitative analysis. Three chapters end with a coach’s perspective on the application of sports biomechanics for their athletes. Although not specifically relevant to the preceding chapter, these views from coaches working with Olympic athletes provide timely and interesting divergences from the main text and further reinforce the intended applied nature of the information presented. It is unfortunate that these sections have not been included in the index for easier identification. In summary, this book is easy to read and provides an interesting description of the scientific and mathematical principles underpinning sports biomechanics, with a strong focus on how they can be applied to improve athletic performance. Most of the key aspects in sports biomechanics are covered and Journal of Sports Sciences, August 2008; 26(10): 1115–1116