Predicting Bobsled Pushing Ability From Various Combine Testing Events

Abstract

The requisite combination of speed, power, and strength necessary for a bobsled push athlete coupled with the difficulty in directly measuring pushing ability makes selecting effective push crews challenging. Current practices by USA Bobsled and Skeleton (USABS) utilize field combine testing to assess and identify specifically selected performance variables in an attempt to best predict push performance abilities. Combine data consisting of 11 physical performance variables were collected from 75 subjects across two winter Olympic qualification years (2009 and 2013). These variables were sprints of 15-, 30-, and 60 m, a flying 30 m sprint, a standing broad jump, a shot toss, squat, power clean, body mass, and dry-land brake and side bobsled pushes. Discriminant Analysis (DA) in addition to Principle Component Analysis (PCA) was used to investigate two cases (Case 1: Olympians vs. non-Olympians; Case 2: National Team vs. non-National Team). Using these 11 variables, DA led to a classification rule that proved capable of identifying Olympians from non-Olympians and National Team members from non-National Team members with 9.33% and 14.67% misclassification rates, respectively. The PCA was used to find similar test variables within the combine that provided redundant or useless data. After eliminating the unnecessary variables, DA on the new combinations showed that 8 (Case 1) and 20 (Case 2) other combinations with fewer performance variables yielded misclassification rates as low as 6.67% and 13.33% respectively. Utilizing fewer performance variables can allow governing bodies in many other sports to create more appropriate combine testing that maximize accuracy, while minimizing irrelevant and redundant strategies.

Injuries in Skating and Sledding Winter Sports: Patterns and Imaging Findings

“…During a run, injuries are more frequent at the start, with athletes at risk of hamstring strains due to the requisite combination of speed, power, and strength necessary to push the sled efficiently. 23 Soft tissue injuries can occur at the initial running phase while getting into the sled or with team member's footwear spikes. Riding down the bobsled, spinal disk herniations and nerve root compression can result from the strong forces applied on the spine.…”

Race analyses among Winter Olympic sliding sports: A cross-sectional study of the 2018/2019 World Cups and World Championships

“…The three different events in bobsleigh all highlighted the importance of a top-ranked start in relation to finish ranking. Previous research suggests that power, speed and strength variables are decisive in bobsleigh team selection (Osbeck et al, 1996;Tomasevicz et al, 2018). Therefore, a physical development program focusing on the suggested variables may be recommended to improve start performance in bobsleigh.…”

“…The start performance in respective sliding sport heavily determines initial velocities, which may influence the remaining velocities and ultimately finishing time. The emphasis on starts in sliding sports is evident in the number of studies that concentrate on variables surrounding start performance in bobsleigh (Dias Lopes & Alouche, 2016;Osbeck et al, 1996;Peeters et al, 2019;Tomasevicz et al, 2018), luge (Crossland et al, 2012;Lembert et al, 2011;Platzer et al, 2009) and skeleton (Bullock et al, 2008;Colyer et al, 2017;Colyer et al, 2018aColyer et al, , 2018b. Studies researching overall race performance was only found to have been published twice across all three sports (Morlock & Zatsiorsky, 1989;Zanoletti et al, 2006).…”

Correlation analysis between biomechanical characteristics of lower extremities during front roundhouse kick in Taekwondo and effective scores of electronic protectors

“…However, in studies related to the use of DaeDo electronic body protectors to trigger scoring in Taekwondo, there is a lack of research on key biomechanical factors related to the scoring values of the front roundhouse kick. In other sports, research on key biomechanical factors has been able to determine the primary factors that determine competition results (Bullock et al, 2009;Crossland et al, 2011;Tomasevicz et al, 2020). It is hypothesized that there is relatively little attention given to the relationship between the value of effective scoring and the kinematic and kinetic characteristics of the kicking motion when using electronic protectors to trigger valid scoring.…”