The Biomechanics Body of Knowledge

INTRODUCTION Thank you for your presence at this conference and at this presentation. I will infer from your attendance that you care about the learning and teaching of biomechanics. In that regard, I will take you as kindred spirits. Moreover, I am fairly certain that you are geniuses – more about that later. Given that I view you as kindred spirits and geniuses, I would like to have you as allies. So, please remember, whenever I say something that conflicts with your cherished beliefs, the word is allies – not enemies. Today I would like for us to consider the biomechanics body of knowledge. By biomechanics I will be referring primarily to human movement biomechanics as it might be practiced in departments of physical education or kinesiology. I will be using the term body in both literal and figurative ways. As for knowledge, we will examine several perspectives. In particular, those perspectives can be framed with the following questions: How is our body of knowledge conceived? What aspects of our body are prominent when viewed by ourselves, our students, our colleagues, and our constituents? How is our body of knowledge communicated to and consumed by our students? How is our body of knowledge critiqued; what does it look like when the procedures of critical theory are applied? And finally, how is our body of knowledge constructed?