The purpose of the master's thesis was to present the correlation between the motor abilities and physical characteristics of the younger categories with the performance in individual disciplines of alpine skiing. The sample consisted of 54 alpine skiing racers (28 girls and 26 boys) age 15 and 16 from the U16 category. They were all categorized athletes at the Slovenian Ski Association and had actively competed in the competition VN Nordica Dobermann in the season 2018/2019. Before the start of the competition season, they were all part of motor abilities and body characteristics tests at the Faculty of sport. Nine variables of motor abilities and four variables of body characteristics were selected. For competitive performance, the criterion was the number of points scored for the competition VN Nordica Dobermann, separated by discipline.
Analysis in boys shows the correlation of some motor abilities with competitive performance. We found that performance in the slalom was statistically significantly correlated with the ten-jump (p ≤ 0.05), agility (p ≤ 0.05), pull-ups (p ≤ 0.01), and height jump (p ≤ 0.01). In the giant slalom, the correlation is statistically significant in the tests, ten-jump (p ≤ 0.05), running at 400 m (p ≤ 0.05), balance (p ≤ 0.05), pull-ups (p ≤ 0.01) and height jump (p ≤ 0.03). No statistically significant associations were found in the analysis of the association between physical characteristics and performance in boys. Multiple linear regression analysis also revealed no correlation between the model of all nine variables of motor ability and performance. In the analysis of the model of all four body characteristics and performance, however, the association was statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) in the giant slalom. We also found that boys' competitive performance in giant slalom can be predicted from the variables of physical characteristics with a 28% probability (R2 = 0.28).
In girls, we found a statistically significant correlation between exercise ability and competitive performance in the ten-jump test (p ≤ 0.01), running at 400 m (p ≤ 0.01), and pull-ups (p ≤ 0.05). We found that the correlation between physical characteristics and competitive performance in girls was statistically significant only at body height (p ≤ 0.01). No statistically significant correlations were found in the analysis of the association between the nine motion abilities model and the performance with multiple linear regression analysis. In contrast, when analysing the association between the model of four variables of body characteristics and performance, we found statistically significant associations (p ≤ 0.05) in slalom and super-giant slalom. We found that the competitive performance of girls from variables of body characteristics in slalom can be predicted with 28% probability (R2 = 0.28) and in super-giant slalom with 23% probability (R2 = 0.23).
Considering that the analysis of the data did not confirm the greater correlation of motor abilities and body characteristics with the performance in individual disciplines of alpine skiing, we conclude that performance is influenced by some other dimensions, which were not included in the analysis. Methodological limitations must also be taken into account when interpreting the data, since the sample was relatively small. We conclude that, in the case of a larger number of skiers, the results could show a greater correlation of motor skills and body characteristics with performance. For future research, we suggest updating and expanding the battery of variables for alpine skiing performance prediction and practice testing, as this could give you more certainty about what are the variables that determine success in alpine skiing and its disciplines.
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