Gymnastics is definitely a combination between
fitness you have to be in the physical shape in order to do the
skills that we do
and get through the routines
and at the same time make it look effortless
so that's kind of like where the artistic side of it comes in too. Especially in
college gymnastics it really is a performance you go out there and you want
everyone in the crowd to be watching your gymnastics watching your routine
The focus is drawing in that crowd
cause they...
you know you're performing for them
and at the same time there is kind of that
scientific and technique component you have to
put your body exactly in the right place so that you are able to
hit those hand stands and stick that dismount
With gymnastics there is a lot going on
but what we can do is follow her center of mass and make rough approximations for say the
force on her feet when she lands and particularly in the case
of say, the uneven bars
If we follow her center of mass
it comes off the bars reaches a peak
where her velocity is approximately zero ignoring horizontal velocity
Basically what's happened
it all of her potential energy at the top has been converted into kinetic energy
The force between the gymnast
feet and
the mat
does work to bring the energy of the gymnast to zero. To calculate the work we take the integral
of the force parallel to the path over the path traveled
If we actually put in the numbers
we can calculate a value for this force which
turns out to be approximately two or three football players or
obviously there is a lot of force there
and these gymnasts have to be really strong
I remember when i was taking the physics series my sophomore year
learning about kinematics and dynamics
it definitely would cross my mind
think like oh...
what are those forces the are going through my legs when I land my vault
Or even just
you know for every reaction there is an opposite reaction so that when you're
pulling the bar down in your giant swings that force down is kinda what sends you
back up so you are able to flip twice and then land
It is a lot of force
by the end of season we know that every single one of the girls on the team are hurting
I think that just kinda comes
with the nature of the sport.