Abstract
The study aimed to highlight the relation between the performance registered by female skaters in agility and balance tests with their competition scores. Within our research, we applied three standardised tests designed to assess the athletic abilities that support on-ice skills development from Standardised Testing of Athleticism to Recognise Skaters (S.T.A.R.S.), consisting of one agility test (the Hexagon Test) and two balance tests (the Stork Test with eyes open and with closed eyes). The research was conducted on a group of 30 female skaters from Romania and Turkey during August-September 2019, with the age range from 10 to 12 years (x=10.87, SD= 0.73). The study showed that there is a significant correlation between the agility test (p=0.046) and the balance test with opened eyes (p= 0.043). Still, there was no significant relevance between the closed eyes balance test (p=0.192) and the scores earned in competitions by skaters. The results of the study aimed to guide coaches in choosing the proper tests for evaluating their skater's performance
Highlights
Figure skating has the benefit of being one of the few sports disciplines in which the athlete's performance is evaluated on both their physical abilities and their artistic expressions
There was no significant relevance between the closed eyes balance test (p=0.192) and the scores earned in competitions by skaters
We investigated whether the scores of agility and balance test are correlated with the technical scores from competitions
Summary
Figure skating has the benefit of being one of the few sports disciplines in which the athlete's performance is evaluated on both their physical abilities and their artistic expressions. Since its first manifestation on frozen lakes [7] till the present times, the sport has evolved in three distinct disciplines: singles (male/female), pairs and ice dancing [23]. While singles and pairs competition routines include jumps, spins, steps and lifts (pairs) in a choreographed complex, the distinction in ice dancer's performance is the absence of jumps. Under the pressure of being subjective [6], the judging system in figure skating. Series IX Vol 14(63) No 2 - 2021 has evolved throughout the years into a more complex and objective system that has clear rules for evaluating performance. Within the current ISU judging system, a routine is divided into two parts; technical score and presentation score [10]
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