Biomechanical Analysis of Body Movement During Skiing Over Bumps

Abstract

Maintenance of balance of the skier's body is one of the most important and basic techniques in skiing on slopes of various conditions. However, skiers, especially beginners are likely to lose their balance on an uneven terrain with dips and swells. In order to keep his balance during skiing on an uneven terrain, it seems to be important for a skier to avoid receiving impulse from the snow surface. Some investigations have been conducted about maintenance of balance of body during skiing over artificially constructed bumps by means of electromyography (Miyashita and Sakurai, 1979), electrogoniometry (Iizuka and Miyashita, 1979) and cinematography (Miyashita and Sakurai, 1979, Iizuka and Miyashita, 1979, Sodeyama et al., 1979 and Ikegami et al. 1985). However, there is no research to try to measure force or acceleration acting on the skier's body during running over bumps. Therefore the purpose of this study is to measure force acting on skier's body by analyzing the movement of skier's body mechanically as well as kinematically, and to find out essential motions to maintain the balance of skier's body against rapid change of force acting from snow surface while skiing over bumps on a straight downhill run.