This book is designed to be both a college reader and a self-help primer. It is about philosophy and the study of sport and other movement forms. The word "philosophy" may evoke images of long hours spent wrestling with obscure concepts, of a futile quest, of abstruse notions and of unintelligible terminology. If so, I hope that Applied Philosophy of Sport will increase your comfort level with the term.
    In my opinion, philosophy is an action - packed search for wisdom and meaning. The concepts and skills described in this book are eminently useful. They have application beyond the academic realm. These are the tools necessary to transform our culture, to enhance our education system, to give life vibrancy and vigor. They are not only abstract and cerebral concepts, but they also give movement and its study purpose and personal meaning. I choose to call this study kinesiology simply because it is the label being adopted most universally to describe the field. Since the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education proclaimed in 1989 that kinesiology should become the one nationally recognized descriptor for the academic study of human movement, there has been a gradual but a perceptible shift in that direction. Kinesiology is superceding Physical Education because it is a more inclusive title. The single-minded emphasis on teacher preparation is being augmented by new professional directions. At the dawn of the new millenium kinesiology programs are expanding beyond their traditional professional preparation emphases on teaching and sport-related careers to embrace such burgeoning opportunities as preventive, complementary and traditional medicine, health awareness and promotion, physical literacy and effeciency and lifetime skills and exercise habits. Both names, philosophy and kinesiology, denote opportunity. They certainly both have a history but this book is more about how, when linked together, they can lead the field into the future.
    The book may be used as a basic text for a philosophy course or as a focus of discussion in issues and principles courses. It is also a guide for individuals in the process of assessing their own participation in movement activities and for teachers designing a movement curriculum. It is written at an appropriate level for all undergraduate students, so it could be used in an introductory class if a goal of the course is to examine reasons for selecting this major or if the course has a careers orientation. However, junior and senior class majors with a background in the field and more intellectual maturity will probably find this reading most rewarding. Graduate seminars that are issue-oriented should find this to be a stimulating resource.
    The approach is designed to challenge you to consider your purpose, to think about why you are attracted to movement and it's study, to examine what you value in your choice of a profession. It is more about the philosophic process than about the formal content of philosophy. It is about attitudes that you hold toward your physical being, your daily movement activities and your future. Above all this book is about you, about becoming a clear thinker and a purposeful mover.
    To help you in this process, each chapter contains a series of exercises that will challenge you to think about important philosophic issues. These exercises have been "road-tested" by college students, their responses are included as a counterpoint to your own thinking. Previews and reviews act as guideposts to the text within each chapter. At the end of each chapter I have appended a series of questions that should help you to clarify your own philosophic stance.