Rizzato Alex, Verdel Nina, Paoli Antonio, Supej Matej, Marcolin Giuseppe
Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova, Padua, Italy.
Faculty of Sports, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Front Physiol. 2023 Jul 20;14:1205347. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1205347. eCollection 2023.
Alpine skiing requires complex motor skills and fine adjustments to maintain balance in dynamic and challenging conditions. This study aimed to understand whether the balance ability in unspecific (UST) and sport-specific (SST) tasks could depend on the skiers' ranking level. The balance performance of the dominant and non-dominant limbs in the SST was also investigated. Twenty-five skiers (14.96 ± 1.61 yrs; 1.69 ± 0.69 m; 59.9 ± 9.52 kg) were divided into high-ranking (position < 50) and low-ranking (position > 50) groups. Subjects performed three balance conditions: static (ST), dynamic UST, and dynamic SST. Subjects stood on an unstable board over a force platform during UST. During SST, subjects wore ski boots, grasped ski poles, and each foot was clipped to an unstable board over two force plates. From the center-of-pressure (CoP) trajectory the area of the 95th percentile ellipse and the CoP mean velocity were calculated. Angular displacements were recorded by a 12-camera system, to calculate the full balance (FB), fine (FiB), and gross (GB) balance in UST and SST. Balance control was higher ( < 0.01) in high-ranking than low-ranking skiers only in the SST. Kinematic parameters (i.e., FB, FiB, and GB) showed a higher ( < 0.001) balance performance in SST than UST independently from the group. Dominant and non-dominant limbs motion was similar (Pearson correlation, r = 0.97) in SST independently from the skiers' ranking. High-ranking skiers showed better balance control and performance than low-ranking skiers only when the task was sport-specific. Therefore, we suggest testing balance under sport-specific conditions to discriminate the youth skiers' abilities.
高山滑雪需要复杂的运动技能以及在动态且具有挑战性的条件下进行精细调整以保持平衡。本研究旨在了解在非特定（UST）和特定运动（SST）任务中的平衡能力是否取决于滑雪者的排名水平。同时还研究了SST中优势肢体和非优势肢体的平衡表现。25名滑雪者（年龄14.96±1.61岁；身高1.69±0.69米；体重59.9±9.52千克）被分为高排名组（排名<50）和低排名组（排名>50）。受试者进行了三种平衡测试：静态（ST）、动态UST和动态SST。在UST测试中，受试者站在置于测力平台上方的不稳定板上。在SST测试中，受试者穿着滑雪靴，手持滑雪杖，每只脚固定在置于两个测力板上方的不稳定板上。根据压力中心（CoP）轨迹计算第95百分位数椭圆的面积和CoP平均速度。通过12台摄像机系统记录角位移，以计算UST和SST中的整体平衡（FB）、精细平衡（FiB）和粗略平衡（GB）。仅在SST测试中，高排名滑雪者的平衡控制能力高于低排名滑雪者（P<0.01）。运动学参数（即FB、FiB和GB）显示，无论哪一组，SST中的平衡表现均高于UST（P<0.001）。在SST测试中，无论滑雪者的排名如何，优势肢体和非优势肢体的运动相似（皮尔逊相关性，r = 0.97）。只有在特定运动任务中，高排名滑雪者才表现出比低排名滑雪者更好的平衡控制和表现。因此，我们建议在特定运动条件下测试平衡，以区分年轻滑雪者的能力。
