Sport mechanics for coaches
Issue: Volume 28 Number 4
Sport mechanics for coaches
Human Kinetics, 2004
To order: liaw@hkaustralia.com
236 pages
RRP $58.30 (including GST)
Sport mechanics for coaches was written as part of the American Sport Education Program Silver Level curriculum, but also with the intention of it being a practical resource for coaches. The text is specifically designed to introduce sport science topics to students and coaches in an applied manner.
The layout is user friendly, with the following features:
- learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter
- boxed sport-specific illustrations of key concepts and principles
- chapter summaries
- a listing of key terms at the end of most chapters
- chapter review questions at the end of each chapter (with answers at the back of the book)
- practical scenarios
This layout means the reader is not obliged to read each chapter word for word to find out whether it is relevant to their needs. Instead they can go to the summary or the review questions, assess their knowledge in the area or whether the information in the chapter is what they’re looking for, and read further if necessary.
The review questions at the end of each chapter are a good way of checking whether you have understood the material in the chapter, and it is likely that there will be at least one sport-specific example that readers can relate to, in the practical examples drawn out in highlight boxes throughout the book.
The book doesn’t stop at how the various rules of physics and other sports sciences apply to the athlete in motion. It also describes why pieces of equipment with particular characteristics are used in some sports, for example, why baseball’s big hitters rarely use a bat weighing the full allowable weight (because a lighter bat is easier to swing).
The book contains many technical terms and applications of scientific theory. While these are explained clearly, with good illustrations and examples, most are more technical than the average community or club coach would need to fulfil his or her basic coaching responsibilities.
If the book has a limitation, it is perhaps that it contains too much information. This is a textbook, designed for a specific purpose. It is well written and provides useful examples and exercises for the reader, however it is a text most appropriate to a coach looking to move towards elite coaching, or someone who is particularly interested in the scientific minutiae of how their athletes carry out the technical aspects of their particular sport.
If this is where you’re heading, then this would be a useful reference to have on your bookshelf.
