LE3 .A278 2010

2010

Landry, Scott

Acadia University

Bachelor of Kinesiology

Honours

Kinesiology

Kinesiology

The sport of ice hockey requires athletes to have speed and power in the lower extremities so they can propel themselves across the ice. This necessity means that effective training mechanisms must be employed to compete at elite levels. Recently, a forward off- ice hockey skating training device, the SkateSIM ® , has shown to increase skating speed for elite athletes. The idea behind the SkateSIM ® and other skate simulator devices is that they attend to the theory of sport specificity by mimicking the forward ice- hockey skating stride. The purpose of this study was to analyze muscle activity patterns using electromyography ( EMG) for 7 lower limb muscles during an acceleration stride ( stride 2) and a constant maximum velocity stride ( stride 5) for 4 conditions – ice skating ( IS), on a SkateSIM ® ( SS) training device, on a slide board ( SB) training device and during a running sprint ( RS). Qualitative and quantitative research was conducted to determine the true specificity of the off- ice training devices. For stride 2, within subject factors were compared for ice skating ( C1), SkateSIM ® training ( C2), and a running sprint ( C4). For stride 5, the slide board ( C3) was included in the within subject comparison along with the other 3 conditions. Muscles studied included the medial gastrocnemius, tibialis anterior, vastus medialis, rectus femoris, medial hamstring, gluteus medius and gluteus maximus. While we were successful in describing and comparing the muscle activity patterns of select lower limb muscles during a running sprint, ice- skating and 2 off- ice skate training devices, more research is recommended to confidently conclude that the SkateSIM ® is a more effective off- ice training device for ice skating than the slide board or running sprint.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:743