If you want to be an excellent hockey player, you are required to strengthen your shoulder, back, upper leg and lower leg muscles.
This basic knowledge and other related valuable information regarding various games is on display at the country’s first gallery on Science of Sports recently opened at the Pushpa Gujral Science City (PGSC) in Kapurthala.
The gallery has been divided into various sections for cricket, volleyball, badminton, lawn tennis, basketball, football, hockey and rural sports, boxing, gymnastic, judo, shooting, hammer throw, shot put, fencing, javelin, pole vault, equestrian, sailing and rock climbing.
Several models at the gallery provide information about history of various sports, ground dimensions, possible injuries and safeguards. This is a virtual learning centre to understand science and sports through a playful and informal approach.
The motive behind setting up the gallery at the cost of rupees one crore was to familiarise visitors with applications of scientific principles in sports - role of gravity, projectile motion, momentum, force, energy, impulse, Newton’s Law of Motion, materials used in equipment etc. and understanding and improving performance in sports.
Abhishek, a student of MGN School Jalandhar, said after visiting the gallery that it provided valuable information about different sports.
Moves in sports are governed by scientific principles and material used has scientific basis. Sportspersons, umpires and coaches often use science and technology knowingly or inadvertently. The gallery makes an attempt to bring science closer to the sports-loving people’s hearts and mind.
As far as the cricket World Cup 2011 is concerned, it left no chance for perceptions, assumptions or doubts about the decisions against run-outs, stumpings, LBWs, catches and boundaries. Players and umpires nowadays use reviews for decisions, based on science and technology.
