B.2.3 Movement analysis and its applications

Learning objectives

• Distinguish between discrete, serial and continuous skills, with sporting examples.

• Outline the preparatory, force production, critical instant, follow-through and recovery phases of a movement.

• Analyse a sports skill phase by phase, stating the joint actions, agonists, types of contraction and biomechanical principles in each phase.

• Distinguish between qualitative and quantitative movement analysis.

• Describe how observation checklists, video analysis, motion capture, force plates, electromyography and inertial sensors are used to analyse movement.

• Evaluate methods of movement analysis in terms of validity, reliability and practicality.

• Calculate speeds, times and take-off velocities from video and force plate data.

• Explain how movement analysis improves performance, safety, rehabilitation and accessibility, using named examples.

• Evaluate the strengths and limitations of movement analysis in coaching and clinical settings.

Introduction

Movement analysis is the systematic description and evaluation of how a person moves, usually by breaking a skill into phases and examining what the body does in each one. It turns the biomechanics of joints, muscles, levers and forces into practical judgements about technique: what a performer does well, what limits the result and what could cause injury.

The same method serves both lenses of the course. For performance, a coach uses it to refine a tennis serve or to explain why a new high jump technique works. For health, a physiotherapist uses it to retrain the walking pattern of a patient after knee surgery, and an engineer uses it to design a wheelchair that a user can push for years without shoulder pain.

What movement analysis is

Any sports skill happens too quickly for the eye to take in all at once. A tennis serve takes well under a second from the start of the swing to impact, and a sprinter’s foot is on the ground for about a tenth of a second per step. Movement analysis slows the skill down, either in the observer’s mind or with technology, and splits it into parts that can be described one at a time.

A full analysis links three areas of biomechanics. The first is anatomy: which joints move, in which plane, and which muscles act as agonist, antagonist and fixator. The second is muscle function: whether each muscle contracts concentrically, eccentrically or isometrically. The third is mechanics: the forces, levers, momentum and principles such as summation of joint forces that explain why a movement succeeds or fails.

Movement analysis is not limited to elite sport. The same steps describe a child learning to throw, an older adult rising from a chair or a worker lifting a box. What changes is the purpose of the analysis and the tools available, from a coach’s eyes and a checklist to a laboratory with a dozen infrared cameras.

Discrete, serial and continuous skills

Before a skill is broken into phases, it helps to know what kind of skill it is. One way to classify a skill is by how clearly its beginning and end can be identified. This continuum has three points: discrete, serial and continuous.

Discrete skills are the easiest to analyse because they happen once and then stop. Each follows the full sequence of phases from preparation to follow-through. A shot put, a tennis serve and a high jump are discrete, even though each contains several linked movements.

In a serial skill, the end of one part becomes the start of the next, so the order and the links between parts matter as much as the parts themselves. A triple jumper who lands the hop badly cannot produce a good step. Analysis of a serial skill therefore looks at each component and at the transitions between them.

Continuous skills repeat the same cycle many times. The analysis describes one complete cycle, for example one stride in running or one arm stroke in swimming, on the understanding that the pattern repeats. Because cycles flow into each other, a continuous skill has a recovery phase instead of a follow-through.

Skills can also be classified on other continua, such as open skill versus closed skill (how much the environment affects the skill) and gross versus fine (the size of the muscle groups involved). These belong to motor learning, but they matter to movement analysis too: a closed skill such as a free throw can be analysed in detail in a gym, while an open skill such as a pass under pressure must also be observed in a match, where the technique may change.

The phases of movement

The phases of movement approach divides a skill into a sequence of phases, each with a clear purpose. Discrete skills have four phases: preparatory, force production, critical instant and follow-through. Continuous skills have the same first three phases, but the follow-through is replaced by a recovery phase that leads straight into the next cycle.

Preparatory phase

The preparatory phase sets up everything that follows. It usually does three things. First, it places the body in a stable, balanced position, often with a wide base of support and a lowered centre of mass. Second, it moves limbs in the opposite direction to the main action (the backswing of a golf club, the cocking of the arm in a throw), which increases the distance over which force can be applied. Third, it stretches the muscles that will work next.

Stretching a muscle just before it shortens increases the force it produces. During the stretch, elastic energy is stored in the tendons and connective tissue, and the muscle spindles trigger a reflex that adds to the contraction. This lengthening–shortening sequence is called the stretch-shortening cycle. It explains why a vertical jump with a quick dip (a countermovement jump) goes higher than a jump from a held squat.

Force production phase

In the force production phase the agonists contract concentrically and the body pushes against the ground, the water or an implement. By Newton’s third law, the ground pushes back with an equal and opposite ground reaction force, and it is this external force that accelerates the body. In throwing, kicking and striking skills, the force is built up in sequence: the legs and hips move first, then the trunk, then the shoulder, elbow and wrist. Each segment starts to move as the previous one reaches its peak speed, so the speeds add up at the end of the chain.

The quality of the force production phase depends on how much force is produced, the direction in which it is applied and the time over which it acts. The product of force and time is impulse, and a larger impulse produces a larger change in momentum. A shot putter’s glide or spin across the circle lengthens the time over which force is applied to the shot.

Critical instant

The critical instant is a single moment, not a long phase. At release or take-off, the speed, angle and height of the object or the body are fixed, and nothing the performer does afterwards can change the flight path of the centre of mass or the ball. At contact, the position of the racket face or the foot decides the direction and spin of the ball. A coach therefore often concentrates on this moment: a small error in the angle of release has a large effect on where a shot lands.

Follow-through

A follow-through has two purposes. The first is performance: a performer who plans to stop at the moment of contact begins to slow the limb before contact, so a full follow-through ensures that maximum speed is reached at the critical instant and that the force is applied in the intended direction. The second is safety: slowing a fast-moving limb gradually, through eccentric contraction of the antagonists over a longer time, lowers the peak force on muscles, tendons and joints.

This is the impulse principle in reverse. For the same change in momentum, a longer time of deceleration means a smaller force. A baseball pitcher who stops the arm abruptly after release places large stresses on the shoulder and elbow, while one who lets the arm swing across the body spreads the deceleration over more time.

Recovery phase

In running, the recovery phase is the swing of the leg forward after toe-off; in freestyle swimming, it is the arm moving over the water. A short, efficient recovery allows a higher cycle rate, and relaxation of the muscles during recovery saves energy and lets blood flow return to the working muscle between contractions. Bending the knee during the swing phase of running shortens the leg as a lever, which lowers its moment of inertia and makes it quicker to bring forward.

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How to write a phase analysis

A phase analysis is usually presented as a table, with one row per phase and columns for the joint actions, the main muscles, their type of contraction and the biomechanical principles involved. The table makes the analysis complete and easy to compare between performers. The steps are always the same.

1. Classify the skill as discrete, serial or continuous, and choose a performer and a side (for example, a right-handed player).

2. Divide the skill into phases and state the event that marks the start and end of each one (for example, “force production ends at the instant of release”).

3. For each phase, state the main joint actions at the hip, knee, ankle, trunk, shoulder, elbow and wrist that matter for that skill, using the correct movement terms (flexion, extension, plantarflexion, rotation and so on).

4. Name the agonist for each joint action and the type of contraction: concentric if the muscle shortens, eccentric if it lengthens under tension, isometric if it holds a position.

5. Explain the biomechanical principle that makes each phase effective: stability, Newton’s laws, impulse, summation of forces, levers, angular momentum or projectile motion.

6. Evaluate: compare the performer with a technical model and identify what to improve.

The direction of gravity is the key to this. When a joint moves in the same direction as gravity would pull it (lowering into a squat, putting a ball down), the muscle on the opposite side of the joint usually lengthens under tension to control the speed. When a joint moves against gravity (rising from a squat), the same muscle shortens. This is why the quadriceps act as the agonist in both the downward and upward phases of a squat, eccentrically then concentrically.

Phase analyses of discrete skills

Basketball jump shot

The jump shot is a discrete skill in which the player jumps vertically and releases the ball near the top of the jump. The table analyses a right-handed shooter. The upward drive from the legs gives the ball height and speed, while the arm and wrist provide the fine control of angle and spin.

A coach watching a jump shot often finds that errors at the critical instant start earlier. A player who does not bend the knees enough in the preparatory phase has to push the ball with the arms alone, which tends to flatten the angle of release. The release point then varies from shot to shot, and accuracy falls, so the correction may belong in the preparatory phase rather than at release.

Football instep kick

The instep kick (driving the ball with the laces) is used for long passes and shots. It is a clear example of summation of joint forces in the lower limb: the thigh swings forward first, then slows as the lower leg whips through, so that the foot reaches its highest speed at contact.

The link between angular and linear speed explains why the leg is straight at contact. For a limb rotating at a given angular velocity, the linear speed at the end is greater when the lever is longer.

A foot 0.9 m from the hip that rotates at 25 rad s⁻¹ moves at 0.9 × 25 = 22.5 m s⁻¹, while one only 0.7 m from the hip (with a bent knee) moves at 17.5 m s⁻¹ at the same angular velocity. In practice the lower leg also rotates about the knee, which adds to the speed, but the principle holds: extending the knee at contact makes the most of the rotation built up earlier.

Tennis serve

The tennis serve is a discrete, closed skill: the server controls when it starts, and the environment does not change during it. It involves the whole kinetic chain, from the push of the legs against the court to the snap of the wrist and the pronation of the forearm at impact.

The follow-through of the serve is a common focus for injury prevention. The rotator cuff muscles at the back of the shoulder must slow the arm from very high rotational speeds after impact. Weak or fatigued posterior shoulder muscles are linked with shoulder pain in tennis players, which is why strength programmes for servers include eccentric exercises for these muscles.

Phase analyses of continuous skills

The sprint stride cycle

Running is continuous, so the analysis describes one complete stride cycle for one leg. The cycle has a stance phase, when the foot is on the ground, and a swing phase, when it is in the air. At top speed, an elite sprinter’s foot is in contact with the ground for only about 0.1 s per step, so all the force for that step has to be produced in a very short time.

The analysis also explains a common sprinting injury. In the late swing phase, the knee extends rapidly as the lower leg reaches forward, while the hamstrings contract eccentrically to stop it. At this moment the hamstrings are long and under high tension, which is when most sprint-related hamstring strain injuries are thought to occur. Coaches therefore include eccentric hamstring exercises in sprinters’ programmes.

Freestyle swimming arm stroke

In front crawl the arm stroke produces most of the propulsion, so the phase analysis is usually of one arm cycle. The swimmer moves forward by pushing water backward: by Newton’s third law, the water pushes the swimmer forward. At the same time, the body must stay long and flat to keep drag low.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis

Movement can be analysed in two broad ways: by describing its quality or by measuring it. Most coaching relies on the first; most research and much clinical work rely on the second. In practice the two are combined.

A quantitative analysis looks at the same movement but records it as numbers instead of descriptions.

Observation and checklists

A qualitative analysis is most useful when it is systematic. The observer first needs a clear picture of the correct technique, called a technical model or model of performance, often taken from an expert performer or coaching manual. The observer then watches the skill several times from the best viewing angle, concentrating on one phase or one body part at a time, and compares the performance with the model.

A checklist lists the key points of each phase so that nothing is missed. For a jump shot it might include “feet shoulder-width apart”, “elbow under the ball”, “release at the top of the jump” and “wrist flexed in the follow-through”. Checklists make observations more consistent between coaches and between sessions. They also give the performer clear knowledge of performance, information about how the movement was performed, which is more useful for correcting technique than the result alone.

Video analysis

Video analysis removes the main limitation of live observation: the speed of the movement. A standard camera records 25–30 frames per second (fps), but many smartphones record at 120 or 240 fps, so an action lasting 0.1 s is captured in 24 frames at 240 fps instead of 3. Replaying in slow motion or frame by frame lets the coach find the exact critical instant, measure joint angles on screen and compare the performer side by side with an expert or with an earlier recording.

Video analysis can be qualitative (watching for errors) or quantitative. Software can measure angles and distances on the screen if the camera is set up carefully: fixed on a tripod, perpendicular to the plane of the movement, and with an object of known length in the same plane for scaling. Each frame represents a known time interval (1/240 s at 240 fps), so counting frames measures time.

Apps have made quantitative video analysis cheap. In one validation study, 20 recreationally active men performed 100 countermovement jumps that were measured at the same time by a laboratory force platform and by an iPhone app that calculated jump height from flight time in slow-motion video. Agreement between the two was almost perfect (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.997; r = 0.995), with a small systematic difference (bias) of about 1 cm between the two devices.

Sources: Balsalobre-Fernández, Glaister and Lockey, Journal of Sports Sciences, 2015.

Two-dimensional (2D) video, from one camera, is limited to movements in one plane. A movement that is partly towards or away from the camera appears shorter than it is (perspective or parallax error), and joint angles measured from the screen are then wrong. Rotations such as a forearm pronating are almost impossible to measure from one camera. These limits are why research laboratories use three-dimensional systems.

Motion capture

In marker-based motion capture, eight or more cameras recording at 100–500 fps surround the performer, and software reconstructs each marker’s 3D position. The result is a stick-figure model of the body that can be viewed from any angle and from which every joint angle in every plane is calculated. Combined with force plates, it allows the joint forces and turning effects (moments) to be estimated, which is how researchers measure the loads on the knee during landing.

Marker-based motion capture is treated as the gold standard for measuring kinematics, but it has limits. It is expensive and confined to a laboratory, markers on skin move slightly relative to the bones beneath, and attaching them takes time. Newer markerless systems use video and machine-learning software to estimate joint positions without markers, which makes 3D analysis possible during real training and competition, though usually with lower accuracy.

Force plates

A force plate measures the force between the feet and the ground, usually 1,000 or more times per second. The output is a force–time graph, which shows when force is produced, how large it is and for how long it acts. Because the plate measures the ground reaction force directly, it shows the forces that change the motion of the centre of mass, which video alone cannot measure.

The graph of a countermovement jump shows the phases clearly. In the preparatory phase, the jumper relaxes the legs and drops, so the force falls below body weight (unweighting). The force production phase begins when the downward movement is braked and continues through the upward push, with force well above body weight. Take-off, the critical instant, is the point where force reaches zero. During flight the force stays at zero, and on landing a sharp peak of force appears, often three or more times body weight, as the legs absorb the impact.

Electromyography

Electromyography answers questions that video cannot: which muscles are active in each phase, in what order they switch on, and how strongly relative to their maximum. Surface electrodes are stuck to the skin over a muscle, and the signal is amplified and recorded alongside video or force data. EMG shows, for example, that the hamstrings are strongly active in the late swing phase of sprinting, which supports the link between the late swing phase and hamstring strains.

EMG has important limits. The signal shows electrical activation, not the force a muscle produces, so a large EMG signal does not always mean a large force (a fatigued muscle needs more activation for the same force). Surface electrodes pick up only superficial muscles, and signals from neighbouring muscles can mix (crosstalk). Sweat, movement of the electrodes and skin preparation all affect the reading, so EMG data must be normalised and interpreted with care.

Inertial sensors and wearables

An inertial sensor, also called an inertial measurement unit (IMU), is small enough to fit in a shoe, on a wrist or in a vest between the shoulder blades. From its data, software calculates step rate, ground contact time, the number and intensity of jumps, or the speed of a bowling arm. Team sports combine IMUs with GPS units in vests to record distances, speeds and accelerations for every player in every session, data that is used to manage training load and injury risk.

The strength of wearables is that they measure in the real setting, for many athletes at once, over a whole season. Their limitations are lower accuracy than laboratory systems for some measures, errors that build up when acceleration is converted into velocity and position, and GPS signals that are poor indoors. Each device and measure therefore needs its own validity study before coaches rely on the numbers.

Validity, reliability and practicality

Every method of movement analysis is judged by three questions. Does it measure what it claims to measure (validity)? Does it give the same result when the same movement is measured again (reliability)? And can it be used in the setting, budget and time available (practicality)? A method can be reliable without being valid: a badly placed camera may give the same wrong knee angle every time.

The choice of method therefore depends on the question. A youth coach checking whether players land with their knees aligned needs a quick, practical tool, such as front-on smartphone video and a checklist. A researcher investigating whether a landing pattern predicts knee injury needs the precision of 3D motion capture and force plates. A study of 41 elite female handball and football players found that 3D measurements of knee angles and moments during a drop jump had excellent reliability within a session (intraclass correlation coefficients above 0.87) and good to excellent reliability between sessions on different days (above 0.69 for most measures).

Sources: Mok, Petushek and Krosshaug, Gait and Posture, 2016.

Applications of movement analysis

Movement analysis is only useful if it leads to a change: a better technique, a safer movement, a faster recovery or a design that lets more people take part. The four main areas of application overlap, and a single analysis often serves several of them.

Improving performance

The most familiar use is technique correction. A coach compares a performer with a technical model, identifies the phase where performance is lost, and gives feedback and practice that target it. Video makes the feedback powerful because the performer can see the error, which also links to motor learning: video gives knowledge of performance that the performer cannot feel from the inside, especially in the early stages of learning a skill.

Movement analysis also explains why new techniques succeed. The Fosbury flop in high jump, the clap skate in speed skating and the hitch-kick in long jump were each examined by biomechanists, who showed which principles made them effective. In elite sport, analysis is now continuous: swimmers are filmed underwater at every training session, and sprinters’ ground contact times are measured on instrumented tracks.

A limitation is that one “correct” technique does not suit everyone. Body dimensions, strength and flexibility differ, so the best technique for one athlete may not be the best for another. Modern coaching, influenced by the constraints-led approach, often uses analysis to find the most effective individual solution rather than to copy one model.

Health and safety

Movement analysis identifies movement patterns linked with injury, so they can be changed before an injury happens. Landing and cutting technique in team sports is an important example. Analysis of video recordings of injuries and of landing tests shows that the knee often collapses inward (dynamic knee valgus) at the moment of a non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injury, and injury prevention programmes now teach athletes to land with the knee over the foot.

Gait analysis of runners is used in running clinics and shops to look at foot strike, stride length, step rate (cadence) and the movement of the hips and knees. Increasing step rate slightly while running at the same speed shortens each stride and reduces the load on the knee, an approach used both to prevent and to treat running injuries. Ergonomic analysis of everyday movements, such as lifting technique in the workplace, applies the same methods to health outside sport.

Rehabilitation

After an injury or surgery, a person often moves differently without realising it, for example by putting less weight on the injured leg or keeping the knee straighter. Gait analysis measures these differences, sets targets for rehabilitation and checks progress. After reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament, physiotherapists compare the injured and uninjured legs in hop tests, jump landings and running, and one of the criteria for returning to sport is that the two sides are close to symmetrical.

In clinical settings, three-dimensional gait analysis is used for children with cerebral palsy to decide which surgery or treatment will improve their walking, and to measure the result afterwards. In stroke rehabilitation, analysis of walking speed and symmetry guides therapy. Movement analysis gives the therapist objective evidence of progress, which also motivates the patient.

Accessibility

Movement analysis helps people with impairments take part in physical activity and sport, by improving technique, equipment and the fairness of competition. Manual wheelchair users push the hand rims thousands of times a day, and shoulder pain is common. A laboratory study of 38 manual wheelchair users with paraplegia, using force-sensing hand rims and motion analysis, classified four patterns of pushing. A semicircular pattern, in which the hand drops below the rim on the way back, was associated with fewer pushes (lower cadence) and more time pushing in each cycle, and the authors recommended training users in this pattern to reduce strain on the upper limbs.

Sources: Boninger et al., Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2002.

Movement analysis is also used to design and fit adapted equipment: racing wheelchairs, sit-skis, prosthetic limbs and their sockets, and adaptive bicycles. In para sport, athletes are placed in classes according to how their impairment affects their ability to perform the movements of their sport. Classification uses observation of the athlete’s movement in testing and in competition, so the quality of movement analysis affects the fairness of para sport.

Evaluation: what movement analysis can and cannot do

Movement analysis gives coaches and clinicians evidence instead of guesswork, and it can be objective, repeatable and motivating. Its value has limits. Laboratory measures may not reflect real competition, quantitative methods are expensive and need expertise to interpret, and a large amount of data does not automatically lead to a better decision. Knowing that a movement pattern is linked with injury in a group does not mean that it predicts injury for an individual, a point that matters when screening tests are used to decide who plays.

The quality of the outcome also depends on what happens after the analysis. An error found on video is only fixed if the performer understands the feedback and practises the change, so analysis is most effective when combined with good coaching and an understanding of how skills are learned. On balance, movement analysis is most valuable when the method is matched to the question, the results are interpreted alongside the athlete’s individual characteristics, and the findings are turned into specific, practised changes.

Case study: the Fosbury flop

Until the 1960s, elite high jumpers crossed the bar face down using the straddle technique, rolling over the bar with the body parallel to it. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, the American Dick Fosbury won the gold medal with an Olympic record of 2.24 m using a different method: he ran in on a curve, took off from the foot farther from the bar, turned his back to it and went over head first, landing on his shoulders. Within a decade, the “Fosbury flop” had replaced the straddle at the highest level, and movement analysis explains its advantages.

A phase analysis of the flop

The key advantage is in bar clearance. Because the body is arched around the bar, the parts on either side hang lower than the part crossing it. The centre of mass is a point that can lie outside the body, and in a good flop it can pass very close to the height of the bar, and in theory slightly below it. A jumper therefore needs less vertical take-off velocity to clear a given height than with a technique that keeps the body straighter.

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Research has also explained the curved approach. A three-dimensional video analysis of two elite male high jumpers in competition found that the radius of the curve and the inward lean both decreased towards the end of the approach. A simple model showed that this tightening curve converts the inward lean into an outward rotation, which provides a large part of the somersault rotation needed to cross the bar.

The chart shows the men’s world record rising from 2.28 m (straddle, 1963) to 2.45 m (1993). Dwight Stones set the first world record with the flop in 1973, and Vladimir Yashchenko, in 1978, was the last straddle jumper to hold it; every record since has been set with the flop. By the mid-1970s, virtually all top competitors used the flop.

What the case shows, and its limits

The flop is a clear example of movement analysis linking technique to the principles of centre of mass, impulse and angular momentum. It also shows the importance of external factors: the flop is only safe because landing areas changed from sandpits and low piles of matting to deep foam mats. A head-first, back-down landing onto sand would be dangerous. Equipment and rules are part of the context in which any technique is analysed.

The flop also illustrates a wider point about movement analysis in coaching. The rise in the record after 1973 cannot be credited to technique alone, because training, track surfaces and the number of athletes taking part also changed. The data are consistent with the flop being more effective, but they are observational, so they cannot prove cause and effect on their own.

Sources: Wikipedia, “Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men’s high jump” and “Men’s high jump world record progression” (World Athletics data), accessed 2026; Tan and Yeadon, Journal of Sports Sciences, 2005; Laffaye, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2011.

• Using the phases of movement, explain why the curved approach and the arched clearance allow a flop jumper to clear a higher bar than a straddle jumper with the same take-off velocity.

• Suggest why the flop spread among elite jumpers within about ten years but took longer to reach school athletics, using both the equipment and the motor learning involved.

• Evaluate the world record chart as evidence that the flop is a better technique than the straddle.

Exam practice

Multiple-choice questions on movement analysis usually test the classification of skills, the order and purpose of the phases, and the strengths of measuring tools.

Questions about tools usually describe a research or coaching aim and ask which method suits it.

Contraction types are a frequent source of wrong answers, especially when a joint moves with gravity.

Data-based question

Paper 1B style. A sports scientist tested whether a smartphone app gives the same countermovement jump heights as a force plate. Six recreational athletes each performed one jump measured by both devices at the same time (hypothetical data).

Structured questions

Questions on the phases often ask why a phase matters, not only what happens in it.

Analysis questions expect each joint action to be linked to a muscle, a contraction type and a principle.

Extended response

Summary

• Movement analysis is the systematic observation, description and evaluation of a skill, usually by dividing it into phases.

• Discrete skills have a clear beginning and end; serial skills link discrete parts in order; continuous skills repeat cycles with no clear beginning or end.

• The phases are preparatory, force production, critical instant, and follow-through (discrete) or recovery (continuous).

• A phase analysis states the joint actions, agonists, contraction types and biomechanical principles of each phase.

• Qualitative analysis describes the quality of movement; quantitative analysis measures it.

• Video, motion capture, force plates, EMG and inertial sensors differ in validity, reliability and practicality; the method should match the question.

• Movement analysis improves performance, identifies injury-risk patterns, guides rehabilitation and makes sport more accessible.

• The Fosbury flop shows how technique, centre of mass, equipment and evidence interact.

Self-check

• To do:

  I can distinguish between discrete, serial and continuous skills, with examples.

• To do:

  I can outline the purpose of each phase of movement and name the event that ends it.

• To do:

  I can analyse a sports skill phase by phase in a table with joint actions, agonists, contraction types and principles.

• To do:

  I can distinguish between qualitative and quantitative analysis.

• To do:

  I can describe how video, motion capture, force plates, EMG and inertial sensors are used.

• To do:

  I can evaluate a method of movement analysis using validity, reliability and practicality.

• To do:

  I can calculate speed from video frames and take-off velocity from flight time.

• To do:

  I can explain, with examples, how movement analysis helps performance, safety, rehabilitation and accessibility.