Muscle Biomechanics in Coaching Practice

Abstract

In the 60's and at the beginning of the 70's the first studies about the role and value of the muscle elasticity in the action of the human motion system have appeared. Some authors (Bosco, Cavagna, Asmussen, Komi and others) who more intensively studied this problem together with kinesiologists later followed up the original physiological studies on the muscle contraction and step and step developed the proper biomechanical style. Although the initial stimulus came in fact from sport, we can say now (nearly after 20 years) that this effort has not carried out any expressive enrichment to the coaching practice. It is not difficult to answer the question why it is so: the contemporary knowledge and theories are on a such level which is not suitable to yield necessary explication and generalization for their practical applications. It is possible to suppose that cause of that state is the insufficiency of the science. It is clear that such complicated problem biomechanics are not solved. Therefore usually used terms in coaching practice are either connected with the original kinesiological meaning describing the kinematical aspects of the movement (as isometric, isokinetic, flexion, extension, rotation etc.) or related to force (isotonic, explosive force, static force etc.). Nevertheless their practical interpretation is very often disunited and mainly inexact. The usual neglecting of the information role of the sceletal muscle perhaps results in practice to the simplified imagination of a muscle as a source of the mechanical energy only. This simplified static approach does not differentiate the excitation dynamics, variability of the mechanical properties and especialy the aspects of the muscle unit intramuscular cooperation. It leads to the excessive accent on the force and velocity of the contraction based on earlier physiological findings.