The influence of tactical positioning on performance in sprint cross-country skiing
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https://hdl.handle.net/10037/29513Date
2023-06-23Type
Journal articleTidsskriftartikkel
Peer reviewed
Author
Haugnes, Pål; Kocbach, Jan Martin; Noordhof, Dionne Adriana; Kjøsen Talsnes, Rune; Ettema, Gertjan; Sandbakk, Øyvind BucherAbstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of tactical positioning on performance in the heats of sprint cross-country (XC) skiing among men and women and the consistency of overtaking events over repeated competitions on the same racecourse. Thirty
male and thirty female elite to world-class level skiers within each competition [(sprint International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) points: 40 ± 21 vs. 35 ± 24)] performed two
repeated world-cup competitions at four different venues (two in the classical and two in the
skating style) between 2017 and 2020. The intermediate rankings at five checkpoints were
analysed using television broadcasts of the competitions. Sprint time-trial (STT) rank correlated positively with the final rank for the seven men’s (ρ = .54-.82, P < .01) and the eight
women’s (ρ = .40-.80, P < .05) competitions, while one of the classical competitions for
males did not correlate significantly (P = .23). The strength of the correlation coefficients
between intermediate ranks and final ranks during the heats increased gradually from the
first to the last checkpoint among both sexes in the classical style (τ = ~0.26 to ~0.70) and in
the skating style (τ = ~0.22 to ~0.82), in which the majority of performance-variance was
decided before the start of the finish sprint. For both sexes, ~20 and 16 overtaking events
were observed in each heat for the classical and skating style, respectively. There was a significant sex-difference in the number of overtaking events in one out of the 16 competitions
(P < .01), but no differences across seasons for any competition (P = .051–796). Overall,
this study showed the importance of tactical positioning for performance in sprint XC skiing,
with the number of overtaking events being relatively consistent for competitions performed
on the same racecourse.
Publisher
Public Library of ScienceCitation
Haugnes P, Kocbach J, Noordhof D. A., Kjøsen Talsnes RK, Ettema GJC, Sandbakk Ø. The influence of tactical positioning on performance in sprint cross-country skiing. PLOS ONE. 2023Metadata
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