Pacing Behavior of Elite Youth Athletes: Analyzing 1500-m Short-Track Speed Skating

Abstract

Youth skaters displayed less conservative pacing behaviour compared to seniors. The pacing behaviour of youths, expressed in relative section times and positioning, changed throughout adolescence and came to resemble that of seniors. Pacing behaviour and adequately responding to environmental cues in competition could therefore be seen as a self-regulatory skill that is under development throughout adolescence.

Optimal Development of Youth Athletes Toward Elite Athletic Performance: How to Coach Their Motivation, Plan Exercise Training, and Pace the Race

“…Junior short-track speed skaters show a similar development, as their pacing behavior shift during adolescence, to resemble the typically conservative pacing behavior seen in adults, featuring a relatively slow start and fast final laps. Additionally, during adolescence, junior shorttrack speed skaters learn to adequately integrate environmental cues (e.g., opponents) in their pacing behavior (Menting et al, 2019b). Lastly, a difference in the development of pacing behavior during adolescence was observed between sexes, with female short-track speed skaters displaying the development toward the conservative pacing behavior of adult skaters, earlier in their development process (Menting et al, 2019b).…”

“…Additionally, during adolescence, junior shorttrack speed skaters learn to adequately integrate environmental cues (e.g., opponents) in their pacing behavior (Menting et al, 2019b). Lastly, a difference in the development of pacing behavior during adolescence was observed between sexes, with female short-track speed skaters displaying the development toward the conservative pacing behavior of adult skaters, earlier in their development process (Menting et al, 2019b). Similarly, female high school athletes exhibited less slowing down between the first and second mile of a 5 km run, compared to their male counterparts (Deaner and Lowen, 2016).…”

“…Additionally, during the adolescent time period, many athlete programs increase the amount of training and competition, providing athletes with more opportunities to gather experience with an exercise task. Indeed, the small number of studies which have investigated the development of pacing behavior in junior athletes see a development of behavior during adolescence (Wiersma et al, 2017;Menting et al, 2019b). Despite these findings, previous research has focussed more on how the pacing behavior of elite senior athletes resulted in optimal performance, and much less so on the process of how junior athletes acquire and develop the skills to optimally pace a race (Hettinga, 2018).…”

The Management of Individual and Group Adaptation of Speedskaters to Training Loads Based on Biochemical Monitoring of Blood Parameters

“…Biochemical studies in sports are obviously carried out in combination with physical activity, since at rest the adaptive parameters of a trained athlete are within normal limits and do not differ from the same indicators of a healthy person. It should be noted that during research, the samples are taken before the test load, then in the dynamics of physical exertion, or immediately after it, as well as in different periods of recovery [9,10].…”

Improvement of Technical and Tactical Skills of 14–16-Years Old Short Trackers

“…At each stage of the sportsmanship development, special attention should be paid to training and improving technical and tactical actions, since in short track it directly affects the outcome of the competition at a certain distance [6,10,21,22,23]. A competent use of technical and tactical methods in the process of competition activity by a short tracker allows him or her to get leading positions in a race followed by admission to the next round of competitions and entering not only the finals, but also a group of the three strongest award-winning athletes [9,13,14,19]. The problem is that this issue is not sufficiently considered in theory and practice, but its solution will provide significant improvement of the athletic performance of 14-16-years-old short trackers.…”