The Unified Theory of Sports

It is true that most individuals can participate in sports, but not every individual fully comprehends what is required to optimize their athletic potential. . .  . .

This book is intended for the individual who is seeking to understand and master the ten athletic principles required to optimize athletic potential. . .  . .

For most people, swimming is an exhausting task, but for a few it appears almost effortless.

With experience, most athletes come to realize that an increase in strength or an increase in endurance is an effective way to improve performance. This is not, however, always the case with swimmers. Because a swimmer passes through water rather than air, a unique set of issues arises requiring the athlete to rethink and outsmart this different environment.

Only after learning to slip past water with the body while grabbing water with the hands will a swimmer know how to use strength to achieve speed and endurance to cross great distances. . .  . . .

A runner’s form is the result of many complicated interactions and an ability of your body to make this unique set of motions comfortable for you.

Most literature on running form describes positions and motions for each limb. Here we focus on enhancing positive forces, reducing or eliminating negative forces, and allowing the body to select its own set of familiar motions to manage the resulting forces. . .  . .

In tennis, you are responsible for a relatively large area. In fact, this area extends well beyond the boundary lines. Fortunately, your opponent cannot randomly return the ball to any point within this area of responsibility with equal probability of success. Rather, each return is characterized by its own unique area of high probability, the size and position of which is determined by many variables.

Court management skills assist you in achieving position relative to the center of likely response rather than position based solely on your area of total responsibility. The player with better court management skills travels a shorter distance to the ball and has more time to hit it, increasing the chances of a successful return. . .  . .

Cycling is one of a handful of sports most individuals participate in at some point in life. Most people learn to ride a bike in childhood, absorbing basic techniques that survive a lifetime. A few take the sport to a level requiring advanced techniques. Regardless of your level of participation, you can enhance your enjoyment of cycling, and reap more benefits from it, by understanding many of the techniques used by accomplished riders. . .  . .

Balance is unquestionably required if you want to be a successful skier. On any incline, gravity provides the minimum force required for the ski to slide across the snow’s surface. Unlike running, skiing does not involved a fixed point of contact between the body and the ground. The trick, then, is to find other means for achieving balance while the ski is slipping over the snow. Understanding how a “feeling” of balance is achieved and how “balanced body positions” are achieved permits you to take specific steps to actively achieve balance. . .  . .

This (final) chapter presents a method for assessing your performance in accordance with the unified theory’s underlying principles. It is our hope that you will use this method to organize and focus your efforts. . .  . .