A KINEMATIC FOCUS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MAIN PHASES OF SKI JUMPING AND PERFORMANCE AT THE INNSBRUCK 1995 EVENT

Abstract

Ski jumping is a unique sport discipline with a wide range of movements consisting of several follow-up phases. There is a selection of studies which have described each of the separate phases of the ski jump performance. However, the interaction between the movements of each of the main ski jump phases and their influence on the final performance have not been explored. The purpose of this project was to carry out a kinematic analysis of the entire ski jump performance and to determine the interrelationships between the various phases of the ski jump and between the final performance. The research was complete during the K120 world cup event Intersporttournee at Innsbruck on January 4th, 1995. The Innsbruck jumping hill provided an ideal environment for the location of each of the required cameras. In addition, the competition attracts a great a great number of top world athletes. The h t(n =50) and final (n=30) jump rounds were taped using seven cameras. Seven researchers from the three research groups who participated in this project (Czech Republic, Canada, and Slovenia) each operated a camera in order to record each of the five main phases: in-run, take-off, transition, flight 1 and flight 2. The kinematic data for each of the different phases were elaborated by using the 2D System of hematic Analysis of Ski-jumping (In-run, take-o& transition), the 3D Consport Motion Analysis System (transition), and the 2D Peak Performance System (flight 1, flight 2). The analysis also included measures of body dimensions (height, weight, and other anthropometric parameters), the length of jump, and the official in-run velocity. Analysis of variance, correlation, regression and factor analyses were used to statistically examine the data. The results of this research have added a new dimension to our understanding of the world's best ski jumpeis performances and the interrelationships between the movements in each of the critical phases.