Mechanics of turning and jumping and skier speed are associated with injury risk in men's World Cup alpine skiing: a comparison between the competition disciplines

Gilgien, Matthias; Spörri, Jörg; Kröll, Josef; Crivelli, Philip; Müller, Erich

doi:10.1136/bjsports-2013-092994

Cited by 74 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…This may explain why there is a positive secular trend in body weight among elite alpine skiers (Neumayr et al, 2003;Osgnach et al, 2005;White & Johnson, 1991). However, higher mean velocities are acquired in SPEED events and the specialists in these events need to absorb higher ground reaction forces than specialists in TECH events (Gilgien, Spörri, Kröll, Crivelli, & Müller, 2014). Subsequently, SPEED specialists may need heavier and more muscular body profiles than TECH specialists to attain higher mean velocities and distribute the generated forces across the entire body.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Event-Specific Body Characteristics of Elite Alpine Skiers in Relation to International Rankings

Vermeulen¹,

Clijsen²,

Fassler

et al. 2017

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Objective: This explorative study examined potential performance indicators through a correlational analysis between morphological measures and international ranking within each alpine ski event for each gender separately. Methods: A cross-sectional sample of 58 elite alpine skiers were allocated into a technical or speed event group based on their international ski rankings. Several two-way (2 * 2) (M)ANOVA's were used to examine the effect of gender and event group on age, BMI, sum of 6 skinfolds and somatotype. Forward stepwise discriminant analysis selected the most discriminating somatotype component between gender and/or event. Bivariate Pearson correlations between registered variables and international rankings per alpine ski event were examined for each gender separately. Results: Female speed specialists possessed more relative fat mass (P = 0.022) than female technical specialists. Irrespective of gender, technical specialists were lighter (P < 0.001) and had less relative fat mass than speed specialists (P = 0.008). Pearson values indicated moderate associations between speed rankings and body weight. High female speed rankings were associated with higher relative fat mass. High male speed rankings were associated with lower ectomorphy. Conclusion: Additional body weight appears to be beneficial in SPEED events. Fat mass correlated positively with higher rankings of female SPEED specialists. This observation should be monitored in female alpine skiers so that performance thresholds of relative body fat can be determined.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Event-Specific Body Characteristics of Elite Alpine Skiers in Relation to International Rankings

Vermeulen¹,

Clijsen²,

Fassler

et al. 2017

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“…position, velocity and acceleration) have been proposed as reference measures representing the athlete's overall movement in space (Schiefermüller, Lindinger, Raschner, & Müller, 2004). While earlier studies mainly used three-dimensional (3D) videobased systems for the reconstruction of the CoM (Federolf, Reid, Gilgien, Haugen, & Smith, 2012;Klous, Müller, & Schwameder, 2010;Raschner et al, 2001;Reid, 2010;Reid et al, 2007;Supej, Kugovnik, & Nemec, 2004), recent approaches have suggested the use of differential global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) (Gilgien, Singer, & Rhyner, 2010;Gilgien, Spörri, Kröll, Crivelli, & Müller, 2014;Gilgien, Spörri, Limpach, Geiger, & Müller, 2014;Lachapelle, Morrison, Ong, & Cole, 2009;Supej, 2010;Supej & Holmberg, 2011;Supej et al, 2013). GNSS systems allow larger capture volumes with reasonable set-up and processing requirements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The GNSS antenna cannot be placed at the CoM since CoM position is changing with time and satellite signals would be shaded by the skiers own body. To overcome this problem, previous researchers have placed the antenna on either the head (Brodie, Walmsley, & Page, 2008;Gilgien et al, 2013;Gilgien, Spörri, Kröll, et al, 2014;Gilgien, Spörri, Limpach, et al, 2014;Lachapelle et al, 2009; or back (Gilgien, Singer, et al, 2010;Supej, 2010;Supej & Holmberg, 2011;Supej et al, 2013). In order to overcome the problem that in neither approach was the GNSS antenna placed at the COM location, modelling methods were implemented to estimate the COM position from the antenna so that COM kinematics could be calculated (Brodie et al, 2008;Supej et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determination of the centre of mass kinematics in alpine skiing using differential global navigation satellite systems

Gilgien

Spörri

Chardonnens

et al. 2015

Journal of Sports Sciences

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In the sport of alpine skiing, knowledge about the centre of mass (CoM) kinematics (i.e. position, velocity and acceleration) is essential to better understand both performance and injury. This study proposes a global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based method to measure CoM kinematics without restriction of capture volume and with reasonable set-up and processing requirements. It combines the GNSS antenna position, terrain data and the accelerations acting on the skier in order to approximate the CoM location, velocity and acceleration. The validity of the method was assessed against a reference system (video-based 3D kinematics) over 12 turn cycles on a giant slalom skiing course. The mean (± s) position, velocity and acceleration differences between the CoM obtained from the GNSS and the reference system were 9 ± 12 cm, 0.08 ± 0.19 m · s(-1) and 0.22 ± 1.28 m · s(-2), respectively. The velocity and acceleration differences obtained were smaller than typical differences between the measures of several skiers on the same course observed in the literature, while the position differences were slightly larger than its discriminative meaningful change. The proposed method can therefore be interpreted to be technically valid and adequate for a variety of biomechanical research questions in the field of alpine skiing with certain limitations regarding position.

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“…In competitive alpine skiing, skiers, on the one hand, strive to optimize their skiing by optimizing several different mechanical predictors such as time, speed, turn radius and energy dissipation [2][3][4]. Several of these parameters are, on the other hand, recognized as major risk factors for injuries in competitive skiing [5][6][7][8]. It is therefore no surprise that injury rates for competitors are very high [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Special Design of Ski Plates May Improve Skiing Safety

Supej

Senner

2017

Snow Sports Trauma and Safety

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Background: Alpine skiing is a popular winter sport that is confronted with high injury rates. Ski bindings are often mounted on ski plates, which can positively affect the release consistency of ski bindings and thus improve skiing safety. The aim of the study was to explore, if a new ski plate design of which the middle main part was "floating" on rocker arms improved the release consistency of ski bindings when the ski was deflected.Method: In order to test the new ski plate, three pairs of equal slalom skis were equipped with identical ski bindings. They were mounted: (1) directly to the ski, (2) on the original ski plate, and (3) on the new ski plate. The forward bending release and the torsion release behaviour of these three ski-plate-binding set-ups were tested on a standardized testing device under three conditions: a flat ski, skideflection according to the ISO-standard and an extreme ski-deflection.Results: One-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc test revealed that all comparisons among different mountings of the binding under three conditions, except in three occurrences when comparing no plate versus new plate, were significantly different. In addition, the new ski plate demonstrated a more consistent torsion release behaviour with almost no shift in the release load (~ −1.5%) for both tested ski-deflections. The majority of relative differences ranged between 6.9 and 8.2% between the three tested mounting conditions with respect to the forward release.Conclusion: Mounting ski bindings on specially designed ski plates may result in an improved release behaviour and thus potentially increase skiing safety.

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Mechanics of turning and jumping and skier speed are associated with injury risk in men's World Cup alpine skiing: a comparison between the competition disciplines

Abstract: To cite: Gilgien M, Spörri J, Kröll J, et al. Br J Sports Med 2014;48:742-747.

Cited by 74 publications

References 16 publications

Event-Specific Body Characteristics of Elite Alpine Skiers in Relation to International Rankings

Event-Specific Body Characteristics of Elite Alpine Skiers in Relation to International Rankings

Determination of the centre of mass kinematics in alpine skiing using differential global navigation satellite systems

Special Design of Ski Plates May Improve Skiing Safety

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