Fundamentals of Biomechanics introduces the exciting
world of how human movement is created and how it can
be improved. Teachers, coaches and physical therapists
all use biomechanics to help people improve movement
and decrease the risk of injury. The free ebook presents a
comprehensive review of the major concepts of
biomechanics and summarizes them in nine principles
of biomechanics. Fundamentals of Biomechanics concludes
by showing how these principles can be used by movement
professionals to improve human movement. Specific case
studies are presented in physical education, coaching,
strength and conditioning, and sports medicine.

This free ebook is written for students taking
the introductory biomechanics course in
Kinesiology/HPERD. The book is designed
for majors preparing for all kinds of human
movement professions and therefore uses a
wide variety of movement examples to illustrate
the application of biomechanics.
While this approach to the application of
biomechanics is critical, it is also important
that students be introduced to the scientific
support or lack of support for these qualitative
judgments. Throughout the text extensive
citations are provided to support the
principles developed and give students references
for further study. Algebraic level
mathematics is used to teach mechanical
concepts. The focus of the mathematical examples
is to understand the mechanical
variables and to highlight the relationship
between various biomechanical variables,
rather than to solve quantitative biomechanical
word problems. It is obvious from
research in physics instruction that solving
quantitative word problems does not increase
the conceptual understanding of important
mechanical laws.

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