Influence of proficiency for freestyle mogul athletes on gait.

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the effects of proficiency in specific sports characteristics on gait.

Methods: The subjects were 20 individuals, including seven members of the Japanese national freestyle mogul sky team (S group: four athletes ranked within the top eight overall in the previous season's World Cup, A group: three athletes who ranked within the top eight at least once in the previous season's World Cup) and 13 general adults (G group). Multifunctional sensors were attached to the sternum and sacrum to extract rotational angular velocity during a 5-meter natural gait. The angular velocity, and the angular jerk were compared. Additionally, the sacral angular velocity waveforms during gait and mogul turns were analyzed using cross correlation.

Results: The angular velocity and the angular jerk of the sacrum in group S were higher than in the sternum and higher than in groups A and G (p<0.05). There was a correlation between gait and sacral angular velocity waveforms of mogul turns (r＝0.76, 0.61<r<0.86, p<0.05).

Conclusions: It was suggested that the level of proficiency in specific sports characteristics may affect gait.