Tasks for Week 1 First day – Thursday, January 12 Course overview – review syllabus Assignment for Tuesday, January 17 –Read Chapter 1 of Hall - Intro to biomechanics –Review this powerpoint presentation on courses website –Take Chapter 1 practice exam Textbook websiteTextbook website –Solve baseball/softball problem presented on last slide –Think about how you would approach solution of the second problem on the last slide Homework to turn in Thursday, January 19: Identify three learning objectives or goals you hope to achieve by participating in the class or lab. Then rank the goals according to their relative importance to you.

Intro to Biomechanics: Objectives Define biomechanics, statics, dynamics, kinematics and kinetics and explain the ways in which they are related. Describe the relationship between biomechanics and kinesiology. Describe the scope of scientific inquiry addressed by biomechanists and the subdisciplinary areas of the biomechanics of human movement. Review selected problems that are studied from a biomechanical perspective. Describe the most prevalent professional areas of application of analysis methods and knowledge gained from application of these methods. Describe the major steps to solving formal problems

What do these Terms Mean? Biomechanics Mechanics Statics Dynamics Kinematics Kinetics Anthropometric Factors

Why Study Biomechanics? To address a myriad of problems related to human health and performance. Applications in many professions, including: –Physical Education and Coaching –Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy –Medical practice Sports medicine and athletic training Podiatry Chiropractic –Exercise leadership, instruction, and Personal Training –Athletic training

Studied Problems in Biomechanics Locomotion patterns Developmental changes in locomotion energetics across lifespan NASA, microgravity and musculoskeletal system Osteoporosis – how is exercise related to its prevention? Mobility Impairment – how do we prevent the loss of movement capabilities Injury reduction – how do we prevent falls Occupational research – how do we Repetitive Motion Disorders (RMD’s) Mechanical analysis of sports technique for improvement of efficiency and effectiveness Design and analysis of exercise and sport equipment Selection of the best exercise mode for aerobic exercise

Procedures for solving formal quantitative problems: 3 components –1) a set of given information –2) a particular goal, answer, or desired finding –3) a set of operations or processes that can be used to arrive at the answer from the given information

Eleven steps in solving Formal quantitative problems 1) Read the problem carefully. 2) List the given information. 3) List the desired (unknown) information for which you are to solve. 4) Draw a diagram of the problem situation showing the known and unknown information. 5) Write down formulas that may be of use. 6) Identify the formulae to use.

Solving Formal Quantitative Problems 7) If necessary, reread the problem statement to determine whether any additional needed information can be inferred 8) Carefully substitute the given information into the formula. 9) Solve the equation to identify the unknown variable (the desired information). 10) Check that the answer is both reasonable and complete 11) Clearly box the answer. *Note: Be sure to provide the correct unit of measurement with the answer.

Sample formal problem Baseball/softball problem:

Problems for Discussion Does the softball or baseball hitter have more time to react to a pitch? Assume that the baseball pitcher throws to home plate (60.5 ft, or m from pitcher’s rubber) at a velocity of 90 mph (40 m/s) and the softball pitcher throws (46 ft, or m from pitcher’s rubber) at a velocity of 60 mph (27 m/s). This one is more difficult: A man fell from the railing of a walkway on a second-story apartment building. He was found lying unconscious on his back with his center of mass located 5 feet horizontally from a second story walkway and railing. The top of the railing was 21.6 ft above the ground. His blood alcohol content was found to be.30 (inebriated) and he has no memory of how he fell. In order to appraise liability for the accident, we need to determine if the victim walked into the railing or if he was sitting on the railing and fell off. Can this be done from the information given? How? (Hint: First, find time of flight, then find horizontal velocity, then try to figure out what forces were required to obtain this velocity by using Newton’s law of acceleration (F = ma) Try to solve this one before class :

Assignment for Thursday, Jan 19 and Tuesday, Jan 24 Read Hall, Ch 3 Take web-based practice exam Review Powerpoint slides (will be posted by Friday 5:00 PM) Objectives homework (Thursday) Website homework (Tuesday): –Check out one web site related to biomechanics of exercise or sport (some are listed on p 25 of text) and submit a one-page description of the site that includes: Internet address Title or purpose of site – who is the intended audience? Is the site exercise or sport oriented? Is information of use to you in any way? If so, how? If not, for what type of audience would it be of value? Self-test Intro problems (pp 80-81): 1,2,5,6,7,9,10 (select one to do in class) Self-test additional problems (p 81): 1,4,7)