ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the discipline of biomechanics. It describes the fundamental methods of analysing and interpreting biomechanical data. The chapter provides a practical worksheet on hip and knee angular kinematics of a penalty kick in rugby, which is designed to give students practice in collecting, analysing, and interpreting biomechanical data, as well as report writing. The worksheet includes example data and analysis, along with data recording sheets for use by students to help bring the subject to life. The chapter establishes a video on a subject performing a penalty kick in rugby and analyzes the video to produce angular displacement-time and angular velocity-time graphs of the hip and knee joints of the kicking leg. The subject should wear tight-fitting shorts, a tight-fitting singlet and shoes without socks so that the joints are not covered by clothing.
