Sports and Recreation Dynamics
Athletes at every level are always searching for ways to strengthen their game. To find their way they need to understand the dynamics of their sport.
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Computer-based optimization studies, or experiments, while difficult to build -- because you need a heavy dose of movement science (skill dynamics) to deal with the dynamics of your sport -- offer great potential to study or train both individual and team skills. The work involves a great deal of analysis, a lot of math and physics, as well as programming, not to mention dedication and knowledge of the sport in question.
In golf, for example, you want to hit the ball the best possible way, given the lie of the ball and the objectives of the shot. The task is to:
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Simulation techniques require detailed and correct dynamics models to depict real action. Anything short of this is simplistic and has no practical value. In fact, constructing a useful simulation depends on the insights of a practiced expert. And you still have to translate the language and ideas of the pro into the formal language of science and math.
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Analytical vs. Simulation Studies
Were we to use traditional analytical techniques of mathematics, which strive for exact answers, finding the best starting conditions for behavioral situations (like the trajectory of the golf ball) would be very difficult, if not impossible. But the investigation becomes more manageable -- though still difficult -- applying techniques in computer simulation, because this approach can produce at least moderate improvements, if not optimal results.
In either case -- analytical techniques or simulation -- getting the answer requires knowing the skill dynamics in great detail. Applying either analysis or simulation, you still have to use models to represent the action. The models make it possible to bring out the information content. As I say here, they formally structure the situation and set up repositories of information. So the models have to be spot on.
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At pages A, B, C, and D you'll find excerpts of some of my unpublished material on sports. See also a section on resistance.
I continue my work in tennis (a long-term project) and am looking at the overall read/react problem involving the track, intercept, and return functions.
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The Shot Put, Baseball, Javelin, and Tennis
In a collection of programs including the shot put, baseball, and the javelin, I simplified the work by stripping away the delivery phase and ignoring both the perception and the motor components of these functions, which can be quite involved, as I show in my Ph.D. thesis.
You might read Skills for examples of the perception component. To examine the problems in more detail, materials are available here. Structural and dynamics models of the athlete can be found in the Journal of Applied Biomechanics. For a look at math techniques, books are available at most libraries, but they're not easy to read.
For studies of tennis you might wish to look at details of my program package, Personalized Tennis Diagnostics. You might use my search engine for more details.
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Optimization techniques can also be applied to the field of recreation. For example, you might look for optimal or near optimal solutions in the design of recreational arenas, or the use of recreational vehicles. Many problems arise, not the least of which is the ecological impact to the recreation areas by the visitors and their equipment.
How do you design the facilities to maximize their use, yet preserve the environment? What combinations of activities are to be allowed in a recreation area, like a park or lake? How can you keep the costs down, yet provide adequate recreation? These are among the many questions you might need to answer with the studies.
You might otherwise focus on the recreational vehicles themselves and search for optimum or near optimum ways to drive them. In the broader frame of reference this would involve the dynamics of the vehicles, as well as the behavioral aspects of the driver and could be quite a difficult, though fascinating, project.
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