The Physics of Sports: A Physicist's View

In this talk, I will present a physicist's way of looking at various aspects of sports. In particular, I will focus the discussion on how one might improve or enhance performance by thinking as a physicist about the processes involved. Examples that will be discussed will range from why hockey sticks are (today) curved to why good (basketball) dribbling should be ``heard.'' I will present several examples of the benefits of effecting efficiency in motion. This talk will draw on portions of presentations that I have given in the Boulder-Denver area during the past 30 years on the physics of sports. In all these presentations, my purpose was to teach and develop student interest in physics while talking about -- and showing the relevance of physics to -- sports.