The purpose of the task was to test connection between test battery "Ironman" and performance in alpine skiing based on FIS points – of alpine skiers aged 15 and over. The "Ironman" test battery contains various tests of different motor skills (endurance, speed and agility, strength, coordination, mobility), and FIS points are an indicator of actual performance in alpine skiing.
The survey included 34 skiers who regularly participate in top-level ski competitions - according to the category they belong in. Some of them are also members of the Slovenian national ski team. The trials took place in the autumn period (after the end of the preparation period), before the start of the competition season, under the guidance of the Slovenian Ski Associations professional staff.
In the test battery, we checked the correlation between 5 individual tests (repeated for all categories) and the sum of all tests together (IRON-SK) with the average FIS points of the top two disciplines of each skier (FIS-T). The data obtained were statistically analyzed usnig IBM SPSS 25 (SPSS Inc., Armonk, NY, USA). The strength of the correlations was interpreted inline with existing literature (Leskošek, 2017). All analyses were performed at a 5% level of significance.
Statistical analysis showed that in the category from 15 to 18 years there is a correlation between two tests (HEX; p = 0.008, BOX-J; p = 0.012) and the total sum of test battery score (IRON-SK .; p = 0.035) with performance at FIS competitions. We found no association in the category aged over 18 years old. We assume that this is due to the small sample size and certain deviations in the measured test battery. The most convincing connections were obtained when merging all categories. The results showed that out of the five variables of the Ironman battery, three variables were statistically significantly associated with performance in FIS (FIS-T) competitions, namely HEX (p = 0.004), ZGIBE (p = 0.012) and BOX-J p = 0.00). A strong correlation was also found between the scores of the whole test battery (IRON.SK.; p = 0.00) and performance in alpine skiing.
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