Kinetic fundamentals

Center of gravity: Center of gravity is the point around which a body’s weight is equally balanced in all directions.   It is also the point that serves as an index of total body motion and is the location which the weight vector acts. The center of gravity can be inside and outside of the body depending on its position. (See Interesting Fact # 3).

The Fosbury Flop is an example of a movement where the center of gravity falls outside the body.  The dotted line represents the path the center of gravity followed and the solid arrow represents the force of gravity acting on the center of gravity for this particular position.