UPPER BODY POWER DEVELOPMENT AND RACE PERFORMANCE IN JUNIOR CROSS-COUNTRY SKIERS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine a relationship between the development of upper body power (UBP) in cross-country skiers and improvements in race performance. Fifty-three Jr. skiers participated in twenty weeks of resistance training (3x/week) on one of four training methods - free weights (FW), circuit training (CT), roller board training (RB), or specific strength training (SS). Testing consisted of a double-poling upper body ski ergometer power test. One-way GLM with Tukey's HSD post-hoc tests, alpha = 0.05, identified the RB and SS groups as improved significantly greater than the control group for absolute UBP while only the RB group increased significantly greater than the control group for relative UBP following training. Race performance was recorded during the following competitive XC ski season, which was compared to the previous (pre-training) competitive XC ski season. Race performance was based on a points system to determine changes in race performance. These changes in race performance were correlated with changes in UBP. Significant correlations were found between changes in UBP and changes in race performance (changes in watts/kg vs. changes in race performance, r = 0.49, R2 = 0.24; changes in absolute watts vs. changes in race performance, r = 0.78, R2 = 0.61). This research would suggest that in adolescent high school cross country skiers, about 61% of the improvements in race performance can be accounted by improvements in arm power. Supported by USOC SST98-SKI-003