Abstract

Due to the fact that inline skates completely enclose the foot and ankle, the required effort is very low. For this reason the popularity of inline skating as a dry-land training modality for ski racers has increased dramatically in the past few years (Zeglinski et al., 1998). Under the different disciplines, the slalom (SL) is one discipline which can be easily imitated. The temporal and geometrical extension of inline skates on streets with a slight slope in its competitive form is similar to slalom with (inline slalom = ILS). To the author’s knowledge, no published studies address an investigation of a comparison of any dynamic characteristic of an ILS and SL turn. Differences between SL and ILS might be in the maximum forces occuring. Given the smaller maximum possible friction between wheel and asphalt, the maximum forces occuring are lesser for ILS (skiinline.de 2003). This requires methodological learning under simplified conditions. Zeglinski et al. (1998) describe the muscular activity (EMG) of 6 muscles in the lower extremities and of the back extensors in both situations. Only the back extensors show significant differences concerning the activity. The other muscles behaved similarly to a high degree. This also concluded that the muscle activity patterns are more “phasic” in SL, i.e. more harmonic in ILS. Fueled by the development in materials in recent years, also for SL, analogous to turns with greater radii, there are higher forces on the inner ski and a more harmonic process can be expected (Raschner et al. 2001). The modern SL technique might closely approach the even harmonic curve course on inline skates identified by Zeglinski (1998). The goal of the present investigation is to compare the competitive form of SL with the training form ILS with regard to muscular activity and the ground reaction forces which occur. With an exact knowledge of the similarities and differences and the resulting methodological consequences, the dry-land training modality ILS can be effectively integrated into the process of movement techniques. Einleitung gekürzt