THE APPLICATION OF BIOMECHANICS METHODOLOGY TO DEFINE DESIGN CRITERIA AND NORMS, SPORTS SURFACES AND SHOES EXAMPLES.

Authors

  • Juan Vicente Durá

Keywords:

application, methodology, norms sports surface, shoes

Abstract

As a member of a lot of technical European committees for standardisation I have heard many times that biomechanics is quite impractical. Experts in other fields accuse us when they say: "You always find the defects, why aren't the products or test methods perfect, and when we ask how the methods or products can be improved you do not have any real answers." Sometimes our defect as biomechanists is that we explain why things happen but not how to change them. An example of typical biomechanics answer would be the friction of sport surfaces. We always say that low friction produces falls and high friction produces injuries by overload and stress, and that the standard test methods do not accurately simulate people's movement. That is true, but how can friction be measured and what are the limits?

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