Understanding the Science behind Physical Movement

Todays topic is all about how we as sports enthusiasts function and how to describe our movements in a more scientific way.
What comes into play here are two fields of science: kinematics and kinetics. So whats the difference between the two?

First, Kinematics that focus on motion i.e. velocity, space, time and displacement as well as more specific information, such as how much a person bent their knees.
But all that without considering the forces that produce them. To put it another way, kinematics give us the information of the motion or actions somebody performs.

Now secondly, kinetics focuses on the forces that cause a motion, e.g. how much effort it took to jump to a certain height.

But, let’s step back for a second.
Why would you even have to know what kinematics and kinetics are? What benefit would you get?
 
Well in the end it all comes down to the understanding you thereby have of how you as a sportsperson work and function physically.
A long jump makes up for a great and easy example. During a long jump, kinematics can tell us the speed, angle, and trajectory of the athlete's jump, while kinetics can tell us the amount of force exerted during takeoff and landing.
By understanding these factors, athletes can identify areas for improvement with their coaches and work to optimize their technique and performance. Of course this is can be applied to all sorts of sports!


Put together, knowing and understanding both kinematics and kinetics is something to aid your understanding of situations you encounter in practice or injury and maybe give you a better way to find an explanation for it.

🔐 Victory Vault

Game-Day-Prep

When prepping for game day, there are a couple of things to take into account. You have to look after nutrition, fueling your body the right way can be crucial especially in some sports.
Also not training to hard, as you could obviously be too sore on Game Day and lastly, making sure you’re all set mentally for Showtime!
Now, as every one of the three aspects make up for a great coverage themselves, let’s focus on one of them first: Nutrition.

Nutrition is one of the three big determinants in how well you prepare for competition. And it is not so much about what you eat the day before, but more about how you’ve fueled your body the past weeks and used nutrition to support and recover from training. Here it comes down to what sport you practice and what your needs are.
Now the 3-4 hours prior to competition create a great chance to give our body a good “base layer”.
Here are three things I did (and still do) my best to take into account in that case:

1. Eating carbohydrates, but not too many and only the right ones (low GI score). E.g. rice, noodles, whole wheats, porridge, etc. depending on what time of the day it is. The main goal being to counter brain fog which occurs when blood sugar (glucose) is out of order.
   

2. Avoiding high-fat foods as they might cause discomfort later (usually at “the best moment”) and take longer to digest.
   

3. Drinking enough. Sounds self-explanatory but definitely is definitely to mention. Something I especially like, is using electrolytes. At best in the form of powder in a drink to keep my water absorption high during intense work load.

I always got around good with these three in mind. Most noticeably, I found that Nutrition is just as important as mindset or the right training in order to be set and ready to go for competition.

But now,(if you feel like its worth a read) should I continue covering the other two aspects (training and mindset) or move on with a new topic? Let me know!

^{What did you think of this topic and how it was covered, was sth. left out? Let me know!
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