Abstract

In the last couple of years there have been some studies on cross-country-skiing, which were dealing with several biomechanical parameters. Main problem of such studies in winter sports is to keep constant all conditions during the trials. Another difficulty in the act of interpretation is the knowledge - or not - of the variability in each skiers technique. Variability is inherent within and between all biological systems and sometimes it gloss over the measured difference of technique. It is also often interpreted as an index of the stability of the sensorimotor system. Variability has been used to characterize population differences as well as individual differences in motor skills. When one tries to identify an athlete's technique and/or change it, first one has to secure whether the measured parameters are representing his characteristically technique. Especially in winter sports the external conditions (temperature, humidity etc.) can extremely vary and are rarely constant. One purpose of the present study was to show intra-individual variability and to mark this "range" which will enable to divide variability vs. difference in technique. Secondly the authors will show some aspects of variability in the same technique performing by several athletes. The focus of this paper is on the description of variability in reaction forces. Einleitung (geändert)