Abstract

We show how dynamical systems can be used to model and understand processes in sport by investigating the phenomena of stability and the process of re-stabilization of an athlete. Using the concepts of critical fluctuations and critical slowing down we build a simple model, from the raw data, consisting of a set of coupled ordinary differential equations. From an investigation of the bifurcations and transport in the phase space of our model we provide a new and novel means for understanding the process of re-stabilization of athletes and the way to improve this via training.