Biomechanical Measurement Methods to Analyze the Mechanisms of Sport Injuries

Abstract

The performance of an athlete is affected by numerous factors. These can be roughly grouped into three categories which are biomechanical, physiological, and psychological factors. Biomechanical factors have a profound effect on how an athlete controls and compensates movement patterns during the performance of a movement or series of movements. To understand the mechanisms of injuries caused by the movement, all kinematic and kinetic variables have to be known. It is, however, viable to obtain all kinematic variables in a movement by utilizing human movement analysis; it is not possible to measure forces that caused the movement. To measure the force inside a human body, a surgical operation is required to implement a force transducer. Therefore, modeling in biomechanics works as an interface between the body and measurement settings. Developing a biomechanical model itself improves the understanding of the mechanical system’s dynamics and the structure. This chapter focuses on the biomechanical measurement methods and the practical applications of biomechanical modeling through examples.