Date

5-8-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not adding a non-traditional jump entry into a routine is more beneficial to the skater or if there is more value in performing the same jump with a traditional entry. Specifically, the study examined the kinematics of a non-traditional verses a traditional jump entry by looking at the angles of the hip, knee, and ankle joints at take-off and landing. Maximum jump height, airtime, and horizontal displacement were also examined. It was hypothesized that non-traditional entries would change jump kinematics when compared to the same jumps performed from traditional entries. Ten skilled figure skaters volunteered to participate in the study and each was videotaped performing five trails of either a double salchow or a double toe loop using a traditional entry and five trials of the same jump using a non-traditional entry. The collected data were analyzed with DartFish and a series of paired samples t-tests compared the ankle, knee and hip angles at take-off and at landing, maximum jump height, air time, and horizontal displacement between traditional and non-traditional entries. The significance level of .05 was adjusted using a Bonferonni correction. It was determined that the significant findings were that maximum jump height increased from 0.36 + 0.14 m in the traditional entry to 0.44 + 0.15 m in the non-traditional entry and the ankle demonstrated more plantar flexion at landing (90.5o+ 8.6o) in the nontraditional jump than in the traditional jump (85.7o+ 12.9o). These findings indicate that greater jump height may be a by-product of performing jumps with a more difficult take-off position and the non-traditional jump landing is different when compared to the traditional landing of those jumps because of the greater plantar flexion. Future research should be directed towards studying different aspects of jump difficulty to gain a better understanding of the influence of traditional versus non-traditional entries jumps as a whole.

Department

Physical Education with a Concentration in Exercise Science

Thesis Comittee

Pamela Russell (Thesis Advisor)

Martina Arndt

Tom Tong Ching Wu

Copyright and Permissions

Original document was submitted as an Honors Program requirement. Copyright is held by the author.

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