Materials selection for sports equipment

Sports impose extreme demands on the materials on which they depend. Success depends not only on the skills, strength or stamina of the athlete, but on the ultimate efficiency of the materials of which his or her equipment is made. In this paper, the mechanical performance of materials is evaluated using the Cambridge Materials Selector (CMS) software package, which is based on two key ideas: that of material selection charts and that of material indices. The high structural efficiency of natural materials, in comparison with engineering materials such as metals, polymers and composites, is illustrated using CMS. Case studies are presented to demonstrate how CMS may be used to select materials for sports equipment such as oars, archery bows and vaulting-poles, both from an historical and a present-day perspective. Particular attention is given to natural materials such as woods and bamboo, which, historically, have been used extensively for sports equipment.