INTRODUCTION: Field measures of roller skiing have previously been shown to correlate highly with cross-country skiing performance. However, use of an indoor running track for roller ski performance testing or training has not been described in the research literature. The purpose of this study was to determine if skate sprint roller skiing performance on an indoor track could accurately represent on-snow skate sprint skiing performance. METHOD: Nine female (Mean±SD; Age (yrs): 19±2; Height (cm): 166.1±4.6; Body Mass (kg): 62.9±5.0; Relative VO2MAX (ml/kg/min): 57.3±3.5) and seven male (Age (yrs): 18±1; Height (cm): 182.4±6.1; Body Mass (kg): 71.5±4.8; Relative VO2MAx (ml/kg/min): 70.8±5.1) competitive junior and collegiate skiers completed a 1200 m roller skiing skate sprint time trial on an indoor track, as well as a 1200 m on-snow skate sprint race (Bozeman Super Tour Skate Sprint Qualification Round; December 2009). Pearson-Product Moment (PPM) correlations and a Rank-Order analyses assessed the linear relationship between average race speed (m/sec) for track and on-snow variables. Correlations were evaluated for both statistical significance (a = 0.01) and practical meaningfulness (r >= 0.60). RESULTS & DISCUSSION: Indoor skate sprint speed correlated moderately with outdoor skate sprint race speed using both PPM (r = 0.73; P = 0.001) and rank order analyses (r = 0.77, P < 0.001) (Figure 1). The indoor sprint speeds (Mean±SD; 6.7±0.9 m/sec) tended to be higher than the on-snow speeds (5.5±0.6 m/sec), and the indoor sprint caused a group of the four fastest males to cluster away from the other skiers in a manner not apparent within the on-snow race data. The slower on-snow speeds can be explained by slow race-day snow conditions and a rolling ski course. The clustering of indoor sprint results, in turn, is likely due to the indoor track surface itself to which the fastest skiers were able to handle better than the other skiers. Despite the indoor sprint data clustering, the rank order correlation remained moderate so individual skiers were being rank ordered reasonably well. CONCLUSION: While there was a moderate relationship between indoor track and on-snow sprint skating performance, the clustering of the indoor race data may indicate that indoor skate sprinting also involves unique skills or physical abilities. Relationships presented within this study may be specific to this track's surface. This analysis suggests that sprint roller skiing on an indoor track is a moderately effective method to monitor sprinting ability and training progress within this population of competitive skiers.
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