Optimal Initial Conditions for the Eastern Roll High Jump

Abstract

In mathematical models of athletic performance the competitor is often viewed as a state determined dynamic system, whose states are the positions, orientations and their first time derivatives of as many body segments as are deemed necessary to adequately describe the motion. The time rates of change of the states depend on the states themselves and on certain inputs ū(t) (generally muscle torques), which the competitor specifies at all times throughout the event.