Biomechanics and Motor Control Defining Central Concepts

Journal of Physical Fitness, Medicine & Treatment in Sports

The author presents and substantiates the opinion that in contemporary science exists a clear bias towards experimental researches, which do not entail a theory creation. On the other hand, just the theories, and not "new, original experimental data" make the "main body" of science. Modern technological devices make the collecting of such data easy, and simple statistical processing endows them with a "scientificity", often only apparent. Especially science on human motor behavior, which is of systemic nature, needs more interpretations and cannot be created by direct connections with the easily available results of experiments. Hence, the necessity of building strong "theoretical leg" in this discipline of science becomes more and more evident.

The fact that every generation rewrites history does not mean that the history itself or that the historical record changes all that much, but rather reflects how different groups at different times choose to regard different parts of the historical record and determine which is more important and significant for the present state of science. In other words, what is really significant in the previous history of science is a reflection of then current beliefs, attitudes and paradigms of science. Since the present dominant paradigm of physics is the quantum, the emphasis in the history of physics has been to de-emphasize or neglect any long term historical trends that lead to the alternative of relativity, continuity and the single unified field interpretation of physical reality. This does not reflect a conscious effort made by historians and scholars, but more of a realistic assessment of what is more interesting to the greater number of scientists at any given time. In other words there is no conspiracy to hide the historical truth. However, history can be subconsciously and unintentionally used to promote one scientific worldview as opposed to another. Since the quantum theory is the dominant paradigm in physics, those issues that deal more directly with the opposing worldview of relativity have been unnecessarily downplayed and important parts of history have been ignored and nearly lost. In spite of the importance of general relativity there are far fewer, and the numbers are staggering, histories of the development and philosophy of relativity theory than there are of the development and philosophy of quantum theory. Scientific issues that pertain more to relativity than the quantum are also shortchanged in the historical research and publications that follow from that research. In particular, the emphasis on the historical development of the concepts of space and time which have been considered to be continuous rather than discrete throughout the history of science, have been neglected. Furthermore, since the quantum presents a completely new and original idea that is unique in history, there is no real call to lend it a more historical countenance. Within physics itself, the quantum does not make any reference to the pre-history of individual events in its own realm of action and reaction. Each event is unique to a particular time (instant) and place (location) and that the notion of extended space and time are not absolutely necessary. However, what the longer history of science has well demonstrated is that the general concepts of space and time are essential and crucial to both the past and present development of science, a fact that quantum theory implies could not be true. Also, when the trends to develop and understand the physical nature of space are studied in depth and detail, the development of relativity and even general relativity look as if they were inevitable, a fact which seems at most to be at odds with the development of the quantum point-of-view of reality if not completely anti-quantum since relativity is based on continuity and the quantum is discrete. This view of nature cannot stand the test of time because nature is not two different things; it is one thing and thus necessitates only one fundamental theory to explain physical reality. Since science always moves toward a more theoretical version of physical truth, if the discrete quantum viewpoint does not truly represent the ultimate nature of reality, as now seems highly probable, not only science in the future will change, but how we regard the historical development of science, past and present, will also change to conform to new and coming changes in science. The new attitudes toward the ultimate nature of reality that are now changing science have now led us to the point that the past accepted history of science needs to be rewritten more accurately to better explain the direction that science is now taking and when this is done fundamental phallacies and other incorrect beliefs in both physics and its history emerge.

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Motor Control, 1999

2019

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2007

The authors discuss the problem of human movement science terminology and point out the fact that terminology is (together with the field of research, subject of research, methods and methodology) one of the basic epistemological assumptions of any scientific discipline. Building the abstract models of reality, which is the fundamental task of science, seems to be impossible without the proper terminology, because the words are the main building material of theoretical models. Here lies the great responsibility of scientists, especially the English-speaking ones because English is the most commonly used language in contemporary science, in order to avoid ambiguous words and use clear terminology. Unfortunately, the scientists often seem not to be aware of this problem, and consequently some terms used in the science of human movement seem to be used inconsistently. This phenomenon is especially dangerous in translation from one natural language into another, because an improperly us...

Acta Psychologica, 1982

The goal of contemporary motor control theorists is the delineation of the "language" of movements. That is, in what unambiguous code are the parameters of movement specified, given the composition of the human body? In this pursuit not only are the elements of the language of movement sought, but the rules of combination or syntax of movement are also to be derived. This paper compares a number of motor control theories according to the form of control they exhibit and according to their ability to address issues in the area. Recurring theoretical trends in motor control are examined and the evidence for each is reviewed, emphasizing their explanatory power in the classical problems of control: motor equivalence (Hebb 1949). complexity variability (Glencross 1980; Schmidt 1975 Schmidt . 1976).

Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 2008

Physics consists in identifying repeatable sequences in our environment and finding the simplest underlying laws. In this book, the environment is Sports and it pursues two main objectives: - Walk in the footprints of modern precursors, JB Keller [1] and B.Benjamin [2] and show that sports do entangle a large number of physical concepts which can be used to improve our understanding of athletes’ performances. - Show that sports can be an important vector for the presentation of advanced physical concepts. As a striking example, the quantum tunnel effect which is discussed in this volume and compared to the high jumper who clears the bar while always maintaining his centre of mass below the bar. In order to make links and establish the generic laws in different sports, the book is structured in six Physics domains: Waves and Fluids, Aerodynamics, Elasticity, Friction, Statistical Physics and Human motion.

Book

5. But is it time to look beyond the roll of scientific revolutions, at least in physics the senior science? Is it time to take a long hard look at foundational concepts in physics and at the language in which they are expressed?; at the quality of definitions in physics; at the balance between interpretation and formalism in physics today; at the contrast between functions which at analogues of natural properties and functions which are not; and at the very grammar of algebraic physics.