Biomechanics In Youth Sports

Plato once stated “The greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to cure the body without attempting to cure the mind, yet the mind and the body are one and should not be treated separately!” Thousands of years later, this mistake is still occurring; but this time in youth sports. Youth sports is viewed as an effective activity for solving problems and promoting life-long development. The number of participants increase yearly, due to numerous benefits that comes with youth sports. The benefits of youth sports include: creating motor and sport-specific skills convertible into physical capital, improving health, fitness, and an overall sense of physical well-being an increased self-confidence, self-esteem, and positive body image,

The paucity in research is a leading contributor to overuse injuries. Biomechanics is an interdisciplinary field that applies the principles from biology and engineering to analyze the human body. (Giacomin, 2008, p.2) Biomechanics in youth sports contributes to injury prevention, performance enhancement, equipment design, rule modifications, and instructional/coaching principles. (Biomechanics of Pediatric and Geriatric Exercise, 288) Biomechanics helps modify parts of the physical body: Strength, power, body bulk, flexibility (easiest to modify), body type, body composition, speed, and agility, posture and body dynamic, and proportionally (hardest to modify). “In some situations, individuals are not able to modify their physical capabilities enough to give them optimal performance” (Ackland, Elliot, Bloomfield, 2009, p. 7) Moreover, whenever body modification is no longer an option for optimizing performance, athletes look towards technique modification. Subsequently, if the coach is not fully aware of the mechanical principles, an injury may occur. Humans contain many anatomical differences. Subsequently, some coaches may not be suitable to create a successful performance optimizing plan that should be based off a set of preferences. (E.g. physique of the player, environmental conditions) To solve this problem, in youth sports, biomechanics must be translated into more practical concepts. The use of biomechanics will not be effective until youth sports coaches are fully informed and educated about the biomechanics of the human body. Center of gravity of the human body, moments of inertia in the body segments, conservation of angular and linear movement are all topics that should be discussed more in youth sports. (Applied Anatomy and Biomechanics, 9) Youth sports coaches must be aware of the