Introduction to Sports Biomechanics: Analysing Human Movement ...

INTRODUCTION TO SPORTS BIOMECHANICS
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‘real-world’ study are also a potential source of knowledge about their sport, as may be
other coaches and performers involved; not all of their knowledge will normally be
evidence-based, so care is needed in using it. Problems associated with synthesising all
of this knowledge include conflicts of opinion, a reliance on the ‘elite-athlete template’
(i.e. what the most successful do must also be right for others) and incorrect notions
about critical features.
Scientific research should provide the most valid and accurate sources of information.
Movement analysts need some research training, however, to interpret research
findings: applied BSc or MSc degrees should provide such training, while a researchfocused
PhD may not. The best sources of relevant, applied research are applied sports
science research journals, such as Sports Biomechanics, published on behalf of the ISBS,
and the best coaching journals, such as New Studies in Athletics. Sports-specific scientific
review papers draw together knowledge from many sources and provide a valuable
source of information for movement analysts, providing the reviews have an applied
rather than a fundamental research focus. The Journal of Sports Sciences has been a
fruitful source for such review papers. The major problem with scientific research as a
source of information for the qualitative movement analyst might be called the validity
conflict between internal (research) validity and ecological (real-world) validity.
It is not sufficient just to gather knowledge of the activity; it must also be theoretically
focused and practically synthesised. Adopting a ‘fundamental movement pattern’
approach is now seen as flawed, because of its over-reliance on the motor program
concept of cognitive motor control. The constraints-led approach, introduced briefly in
Chapter 1, considers the movement ‘space’ (the set of all possible solutions to the
specific movement task) as constrained by the task, environment and organism; this is
the approach of ecological motor control, which is still evolving. The critical features
approach, adopted below, is the most widely used by movement analysts from a sports
biomechanics perspective. The analyst needs to keep practising this practical approach,
whose points are widely used in teaching and coaching. The movement criterion might
be injury risk, movement effectiveness – defined as achievement of the movement goal
– or efficiency, the economical use of metabolic energy. Analysts often specify a range of
correctness of critical features, and this range must be observable. One common error is
not focusing sufficiently on devising cue words for use in correcting technique errors;
error correction should be seen as the responsibility of the movement analysis team,
which includes the coach and the movement analyst, not the coach alone.
Relevant knowledge of the performers will include their age, sex and standard of
performance; physical abilities, such as fitness, strength and flexibility; injury status and
history; and cognitive development, which relates to the feedback to be provided in
the intervention stage. Also relevant here is knowledge of the particular activity as
related to a specific performer, which may require knowledge from motor development
and motor learning. An extremely important knowledge source is the ‘needs’ of the
performers and their coaches or therapists; to address this properly requires a ‘needs
analysis’ led by the movement analyst, based on the foregoing points and knowledge of
the sports activity. This needs analysis (which in the real world must include a project
costing to deliver what is needed) then has to be approved by your ‘clients’, before