The Principles Of Physics Behind The Sport - 1800 Words

There is a reason and an explanation behind all of your actions, you may just not know it yet. This clearly described me as an athlete: hard-working and obedient. Unfortunately these qualities can only take you so far. Over the years I have learned that in order to excel in a certain area, you must have a solid understanding behind the basic principles. For my career as a figure skater, these lessons came to me a little too late. Although I knew what I was supposed to do, what I needed were the principles of physics behind the sport. In this paper, I aim to explain the basic principles behind jumping in the world of figure skating by covering the topics of projectile motion, angular momentum, and Newton’s Laws of Physics. Before we†¦show more content†¦In 1572 the first iron blades were manufactured, which reduced the friction of forward motion (Greiff, n.d). Now blades are thinner than ever and are made of the finest cut steel, allowing skaters to have longer strides. This slows the muscles contractions in the legs, which in turn allows for a greater force leading to greater acceleration. (Summers, 2007). With the advances in technology of the equipment, Olympic stars were well on their way to being born. At the age of six I started taking my first figure skating classes at our local ice rink. I had no idea that this passion of mine would lead me to compete in numerous competitions in the Northwest, as well as National State Games of America in Colorado Springs. At the age of sixteen I put away my boots and ended my figure skating career. The photo shown was taken at my home town ice rink, Sherwood Ice Arena at one of the various events that I competed in before giving up the sport. In thi s photo, my mother was able to capture the post-take off for a jump, which can be noted by my body position and where my hands/arms are located. I have almost reached the middle of my jump in which all limbs are held tightly to the body in order to maximize the number of rotations. Although I did not know it at the time, the reasoning behind my actions could be explained through physics. To begin, the more advanced