Athletes work out hard to be the best. They should. If amazing, record-breaking feats are what they aim for, they will have to do more than work out hard; they need to also work out smarter.
Power in sports is more than muscle power; it is knowing how to move correctly so efforts won’t be wasted doing useless motions. Knowing the mechanics involved helps the athlete economize on body movements to conserve energy.
Knowledge of human kinetics, the science of body motions, will also help the athlete identify the muscle and bone groups involved in a body movement so he will know where to focus attention during workouts. A general workout, involving the whole body, can do an athlete good, but specific workouts, focusing on a particular skill, can hone a skill to perfection. This is where human kinetics comes in.
In a general workout, an athlete may well be training hard daily, building up strong and bulky muscles—looking super fit—and yet be unable to do well in his game, especially in a competition.
Champions are brains and skills, first; then muscle power, second. One cannot be ignored in favor of the other. Brains and skills mean an athlete knows the sport well, as well as the body mechanics involved. The hectic training must be based on these. The athlete focuses his effort, time, and resources only on what’s essential, aside from the general workouts needed.
Many athletes today give the impression that sports is all about packing whatever bulky muscle can be built into their body to make it fully fit. With the advent of dozens of modern fitness gadgets and much improved weight machines, the trend is toward stressing muscle power—especially when hyped by the media. But muscle training alone does not make a champion. When the athlete's acumen and skills measure up to the challenge at hand, he wins. This means the athlete must train accurately according to whatever the sport requires. That is the science of sports success -- athletic kinetics.
Lisa Allen is a university librian with a variety of professional abilities. www.yellowgekko.com
Source: www.articlesbase.com
