INTRODUCTION: Landing is the last link and the most telling witness of success or failure in freestyle skiing. For Chinese skiers, the poor landing stability was their fatal weakness of winning Olympic gold. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of local technical monitoring on the landing stability of freestyle skiers. METHOD: Three camcorders were used to analyze motion locus of center of gravity (CG), lateral deviation and space between skis of seven freestyle skiers. Then the corresponding feedback was provided to perform the local technical monitoring. RESULTS: After the intervention, the shifting distance of CG, lateral deviation, and space between skis was significantly shortened (Table 1). A significant correlation was found among the three indexes before the intervention (r=.66, p<.01 between CG shifting distance and lateral deviation; r=.67, p<.01 between CG shifting distance and skis space; r=.46, p<.05 between lateral deviation and skis space), but no significant correlation was found between lateral deviation and skis space after the intervention (r=42, p<.05 between CG shifting distance and lateral deviation; r=.37, p<.05 between CG shifting distance and skis space). As shown in Table 2, the landing scores after the intervention was significantly higher than those before the intervention. DISCUSSION: According to "momentum theorem" in sports biomechanics, the movement in freestyle skiing was motor complex of translation of CG and rotation on CG axis (Tong & Hou, 1994). Consequently, the landing stability of freestyle skiers mainly depended on the CG motion locus, through which mediating their lateral deviation and space between skis. CONCLUSION: CG shifting was the key factor influencing the landing stability of freestyle skiers. Local technical monitoring was an effective method to improve the landing stability.
© Copyright 2010 Book of Abstracts. 5th International Congress on Science and Skiing, Dec. 14 - 19, 2010, St. Christoph am Arlberg. Published by University of Salzburg, Interfakultärer Fachbereich Sport- und Bewegungswissenschaft/USI. All rights reserved.