1 What to expect

In this course you will look at how sport can be understood from a scientific perspective. This is a large topic with many possible approaches. We will try to focus on specific details while maintaining a broad overview of the subject using examples from many different sports such as running, athletics, cycling and swimming to illustrate the different ways in which sport and science interact.

You will see that even a brief introduction to the science of the human body is enough to answer some basic questions about sporting activity such as:

• Why does the heart beat faster during sport?
• Why does intense activity make us red in the face?