IN SEARCH OF GOOD PERFORMANCE INDICATORS FOR SPEED SKATING

The force produced to propel a body forward in speed skating is directed almost perpendicular to the forward motion, because a skate moves nearly frictionless in the for-aft direction and more or less fixed (against the ice) in sideways lateral direction, resulting in a sliding point to push off against. This unique propulsion property makes speed skating challenging to master, the movement is quite different from propulsion methods in daily life like walking and cycling, and challenges the biomechanical interpretation1. In the present study we are looking for performance indicators that will predict the quality of a stroke or a section (curve or straight).
In close cooperation with Dutch elite coaches some promising performance indicators have been selected for an initial examination. One of them is the time both skates make contact with the ice simultaneously, the so-called double stance phase (DS). It is hypothesized that a shorter DS phase can lead a more effective the push-off. The data collection is used to: 1. develop good algorithms to get the DS phase automatically, and 2. to verify empirically whether the hypothesis is true. Here we specifically focus on the DS phase in the curve.