Figure Skating Research Articles

“There’s Not a Lot of Glory in What I Do”: Coaches’ Views on Canadian Ice Hockey and Figure Skating Development Programs for Adults

Hockey and figure skating are iconic Canadian sports, although it would be hard to know this from the dearth of opportunities available for adults to take up these sports or improve their skills. To learn about the factors that shape adult programming in these two sports, semistructured interviews were conducted with 16 experienced Canadian hockey and figure skating coaches who work with adults. The interviews provided insight into some of the structural barriers that adult learners and their coaches face in hockey and figure skating. Participants suggest that while adult learners are an untapped market, a sport system that privileges high-performance and youth development means that few coaches can make working with adults a priority. Coaches receive little training to work with adults, and because adults are at the bottom of the hierarchy in terms of ice allocation, it is often difficult to design programs that meet their needs. The authors call for more explicit attention to adult programming in hockey and figure skating to meet demand and improve experiences for adults.

Outcomes of Flexibility Sport Athletes With Borderline Hip Dysplasia After Hip Arthroscopy for Femoroacetabular Impingement Syndrome: A Propensity-Matched Analysis at Minimum 2-Year Follow-up

Background: Hip arthroscopy has proved successful in treating femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS) in patients with and without borderline hip dysplasia (BHD). Despite a high prevalence of BHD in patients who participate in sports with high flexibility requirements, a paucity of literature evaluates the efficacy of hip arthroscopy in treating FAIS in flexibility sport athletes with BHD. Purpose: To compare minimum 2-year patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and achievement of clinically significant outcomes in flexibility sport athletes with BHD undergoing primary hip arthroscopy for FAIS with capsular plication with results in flexibility sport athletes without dysplasia. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: Data were prospectively collected for patients undergoing primary hip arthroscopy for FAIS with BHD, defined as a lateral center-edge angle of 18° to 25°, who reported participation in a sport with a high flexibility requirement, including dance, gymnastics, figure skating, yoga, cheerleading, and martial arts, according to previous literature. These patients were matched 1:2 to flexibility sport athletes without dysplasia, controlling for age, sex, and body mass index. Preoperative and minimum 2-year postoperative PROs were collected and compared between groups. Cohort-specific minimal clinically important difference and patient acceptable symptom state achievement was compared between groups. Results: In total, 52 flexibility sport athletes with BHD were matched to 104 flexibility sport athletes without BHD. Both groups showed similar sport participation (P = .874) and a similar level of competition (P = .877). Preoperative lateral center-edge angle (22.2°± 1.6° vs 31.5°± 3.9°; P < .001) and Tönnis angle (10.9°± 3.7° vs 5.8°± 4.4°; P < .001) differed between groups. Capsular plication was performed in all cases. Both groups achieved significant improvement in all PROs (P < .001) with no differences in postoperative PROs between groups (P≥ .147). High minimal clinically important difference (BHD group: 95.7%; control group: 94.8%) and patient acceptable symptom state (BHD group: 71.7%; control group: 72.2%) achievement for any PRO was observed with no differences between groups (P≥ .835). Conclusion: Flexibility sport athletes with BHD achieved similar outcomes as those of flexibility sport athletes without BHD after hip arthroscopy for FAIS with capsular plication.

Influencing Factors to Overeating in Restrained Eaters: An Analysis Based on Specific Occupation

Driven by the mainstream aesthetic in society, many people have begun to restrict their diet in pursuit of a better shape. Especially for specific occupations, such as dancers and figure skaters, the requirement of their careers has led to long-term restrained eating to keep a low BMI. However, a large proportion of people fail to restrict their diet or even develop eating disorders such as overeating at the end.Given the necessary restrained eating needs of specific occupation, the reasons why they may still break the dietary boundaries deserve to be investigated.Based on the definitions of restricted eating and overeating, this study summarizes previous research on overeating in restrained eaters, including psychological factors, attentional bias for food cues, lack of inhibitory control, and self-regulatory resource depletion. Then this study consider the particularity of specific occupations, including the influence of peer evaluation and repeated body surveillance, trying to conduct detailed analysis and reasonable inferences on specific influencing factors.Finally, based on the discussion, the study provides possible suggestions for the intervention of overeating and also directions for future empirical research.

FEATURES OF PHYSICAL THERAPY FOR FLAT FEET IN YOUNG ATHLETES TREATING FLAT FEET IN YOUNG ATHLETES: A PHYSICAL THERAPY APPROACH

The goal is to develop and substantiate a physical therapy program for correcting flat feet in young athletes of various sports specializations.&#x0D; Material and methods. The research was carried out at the City Specialized Children and Youth Sports School, Olympic Reserve, Kharkiv, focusing on the Figure Skating Department. A total of 10 participants were involved in the study.&#x0D; A hypothesis was formulated and subsequently validated regarding the adverse effects of specific loads in figure skating on athletes' feet. Following the acquisition of results, an affirming experiment was undertaken, involving young athletes from diverse specializations.&#x0D; Results. Engaging in sports carries inherent risks of diverse injuries. The prevalence of flat feet among athletes is extensively discussed in the literature, with statistics indicating that 50 to 92% of athletes across various specializations exhibit alterations in their foot arches. Addressing this issue becomes imperative, specifically through the development of an optimal rehabilitation program for children-athletes with flat feet in different specializations. An effective rehabilitation program for flat feet among young athletes of various specializations was formulated and experimentally evaluated. All athletes included in the study exhibited flat feet of the 1st or 2nd degree in their medical history. In a majority of cases, this condition was coupled with a valgus deformity. Notably, the degree of foot deformity varied between the right and left lower limbs in some instances. The rehabilitation program was seamlessly integrated into the warm-up phase of the training routine and implemented three times a week over a period of six weeks.&#x0D; Conclusions. The study findings conclusively highlight the efficacy of the program, as evidenced by the parameters derived from the experiment. There was a notable increase in the height of both the longitudinal and transverse arches, a reduction in the abduction angle of the 1st toe, and enhanced strength in the foot muscles. Rigorous statistical analysis of the collected data further substantiated their reliability, firmly establishing the effectiveness of the proposed rehabilitation program for athletes with flat feet. Additionally, it is noteworthy that this program can serve as a preventive measure against the development of flat feet.

LOCALIZATION METHOD OF HUMAN SKELETAL SEQUENCE MOVEMENTS IN ICE SPORTS

A method based on kernel extreme learning machine is proposed for accurate localization and recognition of human bones. In this method, the human skeleton is divided into 16 key nodes based on physiology, and the human skeleton model is formed by connecting lines between the nodes. The sequence images of human actions are taken as input and fed into the input and hidden layers of the extreme learning machine. During the learning and training process, a kernel function is used to construct a kernel matrix to complete weight allocation. The experimental study was conducted on the action sequences of figure skaters, and the results showed that our method achieved an accuracy rate of over 90% in recognizing human bones, with individual sequences achieving an accuracy rate of over 95%, which is superior to convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) methods.

Svalové dysbalance a hypermolbilita u krasobruslařů mladšího školního věku

Svalové dysbalance a hypermolbilita u krasobruslařů mladšího školního věku

Features of anthropometric indicators as a phenotypic characteristic of undifferentiated connective tissue dysplasia syndrome

Aim: To determine the association of anthropometric indicators with the severity of dysplastic phenotype in the age group of 14–18 years.Material and Methods. An anthropometric survey of 382 volunteers was conducted according to the recommendations of Norton, Kevin on 54 indicators. Anthropometric numerical data of individual traits, as well as the calculated percentage and absolute amount of fat, muscle and bone components, and, accordingly, the coefficients of the predominance of ecto-, meso- and endomorphic components in the somatotype structure and indices were processed by methods of variational statistics to obtain averages. The analysis of indicators of physical development of adolescents (height for age, body mass index (BMI) for age) was carried out in accordance with the methodological recommendations of the World Health Organization on the Z-score system using the software “WHO AnthroPlus” v.1.0.4. for children 5–19 years old. The degree of severity of the phenotypic signs of undifferentiated connective tissue dysplasia (UCTD) was formed according to the point system, taking into account the presence of professional sports in the daily life of volunteers in the past and present.Results. The minimum severity of the dysplastic phenotype was registered in 20% of cases, the average – in 25% of the examined, pronounced signs of UCTD were observed in 55% of boys and girls. In the structure of anthropometric data, the indicators characterizing UCTD were revealed, especially with a pronounced degree of manifestation: high growth, an increase in chest circumference, the ratio of hand to height, foot to height and arm span to height (p &lt; 0.05). Among the surveyed with pronounced signs of UCTD, 59% were engaged in professional sports, namely high-static, medium-dynamic disciplines (gymnastics, figure skating, volleyball, light and weightlifting). In the vector analysis of the components of the catfish examined with an average degree (7–14 points) and a pronounced UCTD phenotype (more than 14 points) are characterized by large endomorphy and mesomorphy indices (p &lt; 0.05). With an increase in the severity of the UCTD phenotype, an increase in the number and change in the quality of associations of the average score of the scale of phenotypic manifestations with anthropometric parameters was registered.Conclusion. The wide prevalence of phenotypic signs of UCTD in a representative sample of children and adolescents in Tomsk was revealed. The relationship between the frequency of the main signs of UCTD and physical activity has been established. The constitutional features of the physique of persons with preclinical manifestations of UCTD are determined. Associations of the degree of severity of the UCTD phenotype with anthropometric parameters have been recorded. Taking into account the fact of genotypic conditioning of the physique and the hereditary nature of the dysplastic phenotype, as well as the data obtained, an anthropometric examination with the identification of the somatotype can be offered as a screening of UCTD.

Coaches’ Use of Need-Supportive and Need-Thwarting Behaviors Across the Developmental Continuum: A Qualitative Investigation in Figure Skating

There is extensive evidence illustrating the influence of coach behavior on athletes’ perceived basic psychological needs. However, much of that research has been conducted with athletes of similar developmental stages (i.e., children, adolescents, or adults). In sports such as figure skating, coach–athlete relationships often span several years and developmental stages; yet, researchers have not comprehensively investigated whether coaches consider athletes’ physical, social, self, cognitive, and emotional development in their interpersonal style. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore (a) what need-supportive and/or need-thwarting behaviors coaches use with athletes in different developmental age groups and (b) whether coaches’ use of need-supportive and need-thwarting behaviors was developmentally appropriate based on theoretical implications and empirical evidence grounded in both developmental and self-determination theory. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 coach–athlete dyads (13 coaches and 13 athletes) across four age groups: middle childhood (6–10 years), early adolescent (11–14 years), mid-adolescent (15–17 years), and early adulthood (18–25 years). Deductive reflexive thematic analysis of the 26 interviews revealed four themes highlighting (a) competence-supportive, (b) autonomy-supportive, (c) relatedness-supportive, and (d) need-thwarting behaviors. There were both consistencies and variations in coaches’ use of those behaviors across the four age groups.

Development of a simple algorithm to detect big air jumps and jumps during skiing.

Jumping is an important task in skiing, snowboarding, ski jumping, figure skating, volleyball and many other sports. In these examples, jumping tasks are a performance criterion, and therefore detailed insight into them is important for athletes and coaches. Therefore, this paper aims to introduce a simple and easy-to-implement jump detection algorithm for skiing using acceleration data from inertial measurement units attached to ski boots. The algorithm uses the average of the absolute vertical accelerations of the two boots. We provide results for different parameter settings of the algorithm and two types of jumps: Big Air jumps and jumps during skiing. The latter are divided into small (time of flight < 500 ms) and medium (time of flight ≥ 500 ms) jumps. The algorithm detects 100% of Big Air, 94% of medium and 44% of small jumps. In addition, the settings with the highest detection rates also have the highest number of overdetected jumps. To resolve this conflict, a penalty-adjusted score that considers the number of overdetected jumps in the final performance analysis is proposed.

Multimodal Action Quality Assessment.

Action quality assessment (AQA) is to assess how well an action is performed. Previous works perform modelling by only the use of visual information, ignoring audio information. We argue that although AQA is highly dependent on visual information, the audio is useful complementary information for improving the score regression accuracy, especially for sports with background music, such as figure skating and rhythmic gymnastics. To leverage multimodal information for AQA, i.e., RGB, optical flow and audio information, we propose a Progressive Adaptive Multimodal Fusion Network (PAMFN) that separately models modality-specific information and mixed-modality information. Our model consists of with three modality-specific branches that independently explore modality-specific information and a mixed-modality branch that progressively aggregates the modality-specific information from the modality-specific branches. To build the bridge between modality-specific branches and the mixed-modality branch, three novel modules are proposed. First, a Modality-specific Feature Decoder module is designed to selectively transfer modality-specific information to the mixed-modality branch. Second, when exploring the interaction between modality-specific information, we argue that using an invariant multimodal fusion policy may lead to suboptimal results, so as to take the potential diversity in different parts of an action into consideration. Therefore, an Adaptive Fusion Module is proposed to learn adaptive multimodal fusion policies in different parts of an action. This module consists of several FusionNets for exploring different multimodal fusion strategies and a PolicyNet for deciding which FusionNets are enabled. Third, a module called Cross-modal Feature Decoder is designed to transfer cross-modal features generated by Adaptive Fusion Module to the mixed-modality branch. Our extensive experiments validate the efficacy of the proposed method, and our method achieves state-of-the-art performance on two public datasets. Code is available at https://github.com/qinghuannn/PAMFN.

Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Develop Self-Confidence in a Neurodivergent Athlete

This case study outlines the sport psychology service delivery provided to a 17-year-old international-level competitive figure skater. The client had a diagnosis for autism spectrum disorder and reported experiencing low self-confidence, which hindered his performance in training and competition. An acceptance and commitment therapy intervention was implemented over 25 sessions across a 15-month period. The aim of the intervention was to develop self-confidence by encouraging acceptance of unhelpful thoughts, rather than changing or removing them, to move the client toward the athlete he wanted to be. This case offers a novel contribution to the wider literature by reporting an acceptance and commitment therapy intervention to develop self-confidence in sport. We report how psychological flexibility was achieved through exercises to “unhook” the client from his thoughts around perfection and self-imposed pressure. Reflections from the client and practitioner capture the evaluation of the service delivery process.

Learning Semantics-Guided Representations for Scoring Figure Skating

Learning Semantics-Guided Representations for Scoring Figure Skating

A Hierarchical Joint Training based Replay-Guided Contrastive Transformer for Action Quality Assessment of Figure Skating

A Hierarchical Joint Training based Replay-Guided Contrastive Transformer for Action Quality Assessment of Figure Skating

The Process Individuation of the Main Character in I Tonya Movie

I, Tonya movie tells the story of Tonya Harding, an American female figure skater, from a young age Tonya was faced with her mother's strict upbringing, which made Tonya grow up with a tomboyish and stubborn attitude. This study aims to show the process of individuation that occurs in Tonya so that Tonya can achieve the self-archetype. The objective of this study is to analyze the process of individuation of the main Character Tonya Harding in I, Tonya movie. This study applies the theory by Carl Gustaf Jung. This research uses descriptive qualitative research. Data collection was carried out through four steps: watching, screenshots, note-taking, data analysis, and identifying data. The results of this study indicate that the film I Tonya shows three personas, four shadows, four animus, and oneself, before reaching the self-archetype through the Individualization process, in the film it is shown that the process of individuation occurs by eliminating the causes for the emergence of various archetypes to achieve self-archetype. In this case, Tonya can be seen that she was able to go through the process of individuation with many obstacles leading to the self archetype where she was able to control the persona, animus, shadow, and self.

ПРОЦЕССУАЛЬНЫЕ АСПЕКТЫ МЕЖДУНАРОДНО-ПРАВОВОЙ ЗАЩИТЫ ПРАВ СПОРТСМЕНОВ ПО ДЕЛАМ ОБ «АНТИДОПИНГОВОЙ ЧИСТОТЕ»

The article analyzes the peculiarities of international legal control over the use of prohibited substances by athletes and provides a comparative legal analysis of domestic and international rules to ensure the “purity” of sport. The paper shows that modern methods of international legal protection of athletes’ rights in this sphere are imperfect and need significant improvement. The author analyzed the procedural aspects of anti-doping inspections that affect the level of international legal protection of athletes’ rights, using the example of the situation with the Russian figure skater K. Valieva. The legal shortcomings of the anti-doping investigation against the Russian figure skater related to the violation of human rights were revealed. It is shown that the regime of protection of the rights of juvenile athletes is conditional and cannot be considered effective. It does not comply with international legal standards of increased protection of the rights of the child (as a vulnerable person) and special conditions for bringing him/her to responsibility.

Body Melts: A somatic approach to figure skating

This article investigates a somatic approach to movement on ice in several contexts. First, the examination of figure skating training and whether a somatic movement approach could be beneficial for the development of competitive athletes or recreational skaters. Second, whether this approach may diversify movement forms and artistic outcomes on ice. For this empirical research a mixed methodology was used and included an international survey, as well as Practice as Research process in the dance studio and on ice. This article argues that knowledge and research of somatic techniques integrated into contemporary dance training are transferrable to figure skating training, bringing a variety of positive developmental effects. The PaR process resulted in a performance installation titled Body Melts and suggests that there is potential for figure skating as an artform to be recontextualized and for audience expectations to be challenged.

FEATURES OF THE FUNCTIONAL STATE OF THE CORE MUSCLES IN BOYS AGED 14−15 YEARS &#x0D; SPECIALIZING IN FIGURE SKATING

Currently, there is an increase in the number of studies in the field of sports, affecting the justification of the &#x0D; applied significance, as well as actualizing the importance of improving the functional state of the core muscles (pelvic, &#x0D; hip, spinal column stabilizer muscles). In-depth consideration of these aspects is quite important for figure skating, &#x0D; because of its specifics (performing elements that are difficult in coordination and technical terms, maintaining body &#x0D; balance, increased risk of injury, etc.). In accordance with this intention, this study was devoted to a detailed study of the &#x0D; functional state of the core muscles in boys aged 14−15 years specializing in figure skating. The choice of such a &#x0D; contingent for examination is due to the age qualification in taking part in adult competitions, which, in turn, is directly &#x0D; associated with the intensification of sports training and possible risks of sports injuries.

Action Quality Assessment Model Using Specialists' Gaze Location and Kinematics Data-Focusing on Evaluating Figure Skating Jumps.

Action quality assessment (AQA) tasks in computer vision evaluate action quality in videos, and they can be applied to sports for performance evaluation. A typical example of AQA is predicting the final score from a video that captures an entire figure skating program. However, no previous studies have predicted individual jump scores, which are of great interest to competitors because of the high weight of competition. Despite the presence of unnecessary information in figure skating videos, human specialists can focus and reduce information when they evaluate jumps. In this study, we clarified the eye movements of figure skating judges and skaters while evaluating jumps and proposed a prediction model for jump performance that utilized specialists' gaze location to reduce information. Kinematic features obtained from the tracking system were input into the model in addition to videos to improve accuracy. The results showed that skaters focused more on the face, whereas judges focused on the lower extremities. These gaze locations were applied to the model, which demonstrated the highest accuracy when utilizing both specialists' gaze locations. The model outperformed human predictions and the baseline model (RMSE:0.775), suggesting a combination of human specialist knowledge and machine capabilities could yield higher accuracy.

Training, children, and parents: Coach perspectives on wearable sensor data in sub-elite figure skating in the United States

Motion data from wearable inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors is widely used in some sports but is not widely used in figure skating. In order to understand how coaches perceive the use of IMU data in figure skating training, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 8 figure skating coaches at the sub-elite level in the United States. Unlike other qualitative studies involving the role of data in sports training, our study involves amateur athletes who are children or adolescents and who work closely with a coach. Based on those interviews, we found that coaches see themselves as the gatekeeper for sharing and interpreting data, coaches consider the varying needs of individual athletes when determining how to share data with that athlete, and that coaches are cautious when sharing data with parents. Based on these themes, we propose a discussion around a whiteboard as a paradigm for presenting data and suggest abstraction of numerical data to support sharing data with skaters and parents.

Направленность и интенсивность трансляции ценностных ориентаций в спортивной среде в российских средствах массовой информации

The relevance of the conducted research lies in the fact that at the present stage of society development, mass media, broadcast content, is an important factor of socialization, formation of models of socially adequate be-havior, generally accepted value orientations of individuals – its consumers, including young athletes. Never-theless, many value orientations are still not formed, moreover a neutral or positive attitude towards unac-ceptable social phenomena is could often be detected. The aim of the study is to identify and analyze the direction and intensity of the transmission of the val-ues theme in sports in the Russian mass media. Content analysis of such Russian Internet media as “Champi-onat.com”, “Sport24”, “RIA Novosti Sport” (sports – soccer, hockey, figure skating) was carried out. The study was conducted over a three-month period (February – April 2023). As a category of analysis, the concept of “value orientations in sports” was used, which was further divided into several units of analysis. The search was carried out with the help of keywords divided into several groups representing generally accepted value orien-tations characteristic of the sphere of sport. The following conclusions are drawn as a result of the analysis. Firstly, there is a paucity of materials touching upon the topic of socially approved value orientations. In various media such publications range from 0.5 % to 3.0 %. Secondly, in those publications that are available, the media broadcast an ambivalent and, at times, contradictory attitude to certain manifestations of deviant behavior and violations of generally accepted values, there is no clear understanding of what is acceptable in each sport and what is not.