title: Relationship between off-ice testing variables and on-ice speed in women's collegiate synchronized figure skaters: implications for training.
abstract: The purpose of the current investigation was to identify any existing relationships between off-ice performance measures and on-ice performance quantified by speed and acceleration. Twenty-seven women (age 19 +/- 1 year; body mass (59.5 +/- 6.8 kg; height 164.6 +/- 6.35 cm; body fat 23.2 +/- 3.9%) who were collegiate synchronized figure skaters volunteered for the investigation. To examine the relationship between off-ice performance and on-ice speed and acceleration, collegiate synchronized skaters were evaluated on various performance tests over a 1-week period. Off-ice tests completed were peak torque for hip abduction and adduction, 40-yard sprint, vertical jump height, 30-second slide board stride count, and a 1-RM (repetition maximum) squat. On-ice tests included a timed single lap sprint, 4.5-minute (duration of long program) lap count, and an approximately 16.5-m (18-yard blue line to blue line) timed acceleration. Significance was set at P < or = 0.05. This study showed 3 primary findings: (a) slide board stride count was the single best predictor for both single lap on-ice speed and acceleration accounting for 53.5% (adjusted R2 value) of the variance in the single lap test and 42.5% (adjusted R2 value) of the variance in acceleration times; (b) vertical jump height test was the second best predictor for both the single lap test and on-ice acceleration accounting for 36.6% and 39.9% (adjusted R2 values) of the variance in times recorded, respectively; and (c) the best combined predictors for the single lap speed test were slide board stride count and 40-yard dash (R2 = 0.675), whereas the best combined predictors for on-ice acceleration were slide board stride count and vertical jump height test (R2 = 0.571). Conditioning for synchronized skaters to enhance performance of on-the-ice speed and acceleration should include slide board training implementation of plyometric and linear speed training while developing and maintaining 1-RM strength to support power capabilities.
authors.affiliation: Human Performance Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Michelle E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Bower
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Kraemer
authors.forename: Jeffrey A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Potteiger
authors.forename: Jeff S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Volek
authors.forename: Disa A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Hatfield
authors.forename: Jakob L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Vingren
authors.forename: Barry A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Spiering
authors.forename: Maren S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Fragala
authors.forename: Jen-Yu
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Gwendolyn A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Jacob E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Earp
authors.forename: Keijo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Häkkinen
authors.forename: Carl M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Maresh
mesh_terms: D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012861:Skating / Q000193:education / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult