I’ve played quite a few sports growing up, and am recently trying to learn golf. There’s quite a bit of technique involved in a golf swing and then I got thinking “how do we know this is the right/most efficient way to swing?”. Same thing for a hockey slapshot, diving, etc. Who comes up with the “proper” technique and why is it standardized? Does it come the best performers, and then everyone mimics (like the famous high jump technique)?
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[Kinesiology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinesiology) is the study of movement, and these scientists have studied the techniques of successful athletes to identify what is it about their form which made them so effective.
So it’s not that someone just arbitrarily decided that a particular form is, a-priori, superior, rather, they looked at the outcome of competitions, and tried to identify what worked the best.
Then, after applying what they learn to models of human anatomy and muscular movement, they have gone on to try and help talented athletes improve their technique, to get even better results. But this isn’t always a succcess, and “bad form” isn’t bad if you’re consistent. Larry Bird had a very unconventional shot form, but he was a *sniper*.
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