PhD A.I. Golovachev¹
PhD V.I. Kolykhmatov¹
PhD S.V. Shirokova¹
PhD N.B. Novikova^2
1Federal Scientific Center for Physical Culture and Sports, Moscow
²St. Petersburg Scientific Research Institute of Physical Culture, St. Petersburg

Keywords: cross-country skiing, females, physical qualities, speed ability, maximum alactate power, athletic performance, sprint races, correlation relationship.

Background. The priority area for the modern sports science is the search for rational ways to improve the effectiveness of the athletic training process adjusted to the specific characteristics of the competitive activity against the background of high competition in the international sports arena [6, 7]. Among such ways is to analyze the correlation relationships and identify the most relevant indicators of changes in the major physical fitness components, in particular, the speed ability and the ability to display maximum alactate power, at various stages of the Olympic training cycle. Therefore, scientifically grounded management of the process of training of highly-skilled athletes should be based on the specialists' awareness of the extent to which the sport result is determined by the selected indicators, and of its dynamics over both a one-year training cycle and a multi-year one [2, 5].

Objective of the study was to identify the dynamics of correlation relationship between maximal alactate work efficiency and athletic performance of highly-skilled female racing skiers in individual sprint skiing at different stages of the annual and Olympic training cycles 2015-2018.

Methods and structure of the study. The study was carried out by the experts of the laboratory of Olympic cyclic sports of the Federal State Budgetary Institution Federal Science Center of All-Russian Scientific and Research Institute of Physical Culture and Sports (Moscow) as part of the research work "Individual-typological peculiarities of formation of physical fitness of highly-skilled female racing skiers at the stages of 2018-2020 Olympic training cycle".

The methodological basis of evaluation of the highly-skilled female racing skiers' speed ability and ability to display maximum alactate power was formed by the programs that had been specially developed for the women's Russian national teams and included short-term muscle loads of maximum power provided by the phosphagen energy sources [1, 3, 4].

We analyzed the results demonstrated by 22 female athletes aged 22-27 years, specializing in different types of competitive activity and having different sports qualifications (from CMS to WCMS). The maximal alactate work efficiency (speed ability and ability to display maximum alactate power) was analyzed at the beginning and at the end of each preparatory period throughout the 2015-2018 Olympic cycle. The subjects were offered to perform a series of accelerations on the specialized cycle ergometer "Monark Ergomedic 894E Peak Bike" (Sweden) for 6 sec with the workload stepped up as follows: 0, 2, 4 kP, and maximal load, calculated based on quadratic approximation, which stipulated the automatic achievement of the extremum of function F(x). In this test procedure, the highly developed speed ability of the subjects (peculiarities of speed qualities display) was identified by the maximum pedaling rate (PR_max⁶) at zero resistance (LM=0), which primarily reflects athletes' genetic predisposition to muscular contractility [2, 4, 8]. The measure of development of their maximum alactate power was the rate of mechanical power achieved under one of the resistance scenarios, close to the maximum as a rule, which itself indicated the realization of the female athletes' power potential [4].

The study objective was achieved through the analysis of the correlation coefficient values and trends based on the nature of relationship between "the chosen indicator" and "the importance of the competition". The nature (dynamics) of the correlation relationship was determined based on the results of assessment of the level of development of the subjects' speed ability and maximum alactate power (on the one hand) and their competitive performance rates in the qualifying individual sprint races of the 2015-2018 Olympic sports seasons at the following stages of the annual cycle (on the other hand): at the end of the snowless stage of the preparatory period, including the national competitions (late September), the middle and end of the competitive period, including the Russian Cup Finals, World Championships or Olympic Games, World Cup stages (the 2015-2016 sports season) held in the middle of the competitive period and associated with the achievement of the peak levels (February, March) at the main start of the season, as well as the Russian Championships in cross-country skiing at the end of the competitive period and associated with the opportunity to try out for the team and get involved in the centralized training for the next sports season (April).

Results and discussion. The correlation analysis covered the following initial indices: maximum pedaling rate at zero resistance (PR_max⁶; HM=0), rate of load tolerance (LM) at maximum power, maximum pedaling rate at maximum load tolerance (PR⁶), absolute and relative rates of maximum power (W⁶abs and W⁶rel, respectively), coefficient of realization of the power potential (CRP), and the sports result demonstrated at the main start of the season.

The dynamics of changes in the correlation coefficients throughout the study period is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Correlation relationship between maximum anaerobic capacity rates and competitive performance rates in sprint races of 2015-2018 Olympic cycle.

* – correlation coefficients conforming to the significance level p<0.05

For the study purposes, we analyzed the dynamics of changes in the correlation coefficients for the key indices we had selected.

The dynamics of the maximum pedaling rate at zero resistance (PR_max⁶), which reflected the subjects' speed ability and contractile muscle function, was characterized by the unidirectional changes in the strength of relationship within the range from 0.458-0.801 in the 2014-2015 sports season and up to 0.222-0.783 in the 2017-2018 sports season. The peak level of correlation relationship (Rtk) between the test item and the sports result demonstrated in the 2014-2015 sports season was reached at the Russian Cup Final (Rtk=0.801) and World Championship in Falun (Rtk=0,786), in the 2015-2016 sports season - at the Summer All-Russian Competitions in cross-country skiing in Tyumen (Rtk=0.778) and World Cup stage in Stockholm (Rtk=0.552), in the 2016-2017 sports season - at the World Championship in Lahti (Rtk=0.611), and in the 2017-2018 sports season - at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang (Rtk=0.783) and All-Russian Competitions in Tyumen (Rtk=0.650), indicating a great impact of the speed ability on the outcome of sprint races at all stages of the Olympic cycle.

The dynamics of the coefficients of correlation between the load moment (LM) and strength component of the maximum power was characterized by the multidirectional (according to Rtk "+/-") changes in the strength of relationship within the range from -0.604-0.471 in the 2014-2015 sports season to 0.450-0.794 in the 2017-2018 sports season. The peak level of correlation relationship in the 2014-2015 sports season was achieved at the Russian Championship (Rtk=0.471), during the final selection for the team - at the World Championship in Falun, with the correlation being negative (Rtk=-0,614), which indicated the methodical direction of the training process design using the frequency of movements (movement rate) and consequently the high level of development of the functional component of muscle work, in the 2015-2016 sports season - at the Summer National Competitions in Tyumen (Rtk=0.422), in the 2016-2017 sports season - at the Russian Championship in Khanty-Mansiysk (Rtk=0.789) during the team selection, at the Summer National Competitions in Tyumen (Rtk=0.753) and at the World Championship in Lahti (Rtk=0.647), and in the 2017-2018 sports season - at the Summer National Competitions in Tyumen (Rtk=0.794), Russian Championship in Syktyvkar (Rtk=0.717), which indicated the preservation of the positive vector of the correlation relationship (at the average Rtk level) for the next two years of preparation for the Olympic Games, as well as the apparent significance of this indicator in the qualifying races (Summer National Competitions and Russian Championships at the end of the season - team selection).

The dynamics of the coefficients of correlation between the maximum pedaling rate (PR⁶ LMmax) and the speed component of maximum power was characterized by the multidirectional (according to Rtk) changes in the strength of relationship within the range from 0.356-0.789 in the 2014-2015 sports season to -0.148-0.899 in the 2017-2018 sports season. The peak level of correlation relationship in the 2014-2015 sports season was reached at the World Championship in Falun (Rtk=0.789), in the 2015-2016 sports season - at the World Cup stage in Stockholm (Rtk=-0.656), in the 2016-2017 sports season - at the World Championship in Lahti (Rtk=0.238), and in the 2017-2018 sports season - at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang (Rtk=0.899), thus indicating the high level of significance of the speed component (at the peak tolerance level) in the achievement of the final result in sprint races.

The dynamics of the coefficients of correlation of the absolute maximum power rate (W⁶abs) was characterized by the unidirectional (except for the sprint races at the Russian Cup Final and World Championship of 2016-2017) positive ("+" in sign) changes in the strength of relationship at the level of the average and high values of Rtk within the range from 0.331-0.729 in the 2014-2015 sports season to 0.248-0.720 in the 2017-2018 sports season. The peak level of correlation relationship in the 2014-2015 sports season was reached at the Russian Cup Final in Rybinsk (Rtk=0.729), in the 2015-2016 sports season - at the Summer All-Russian Competitions in Tyumen (Rtk=0.556), in the 2016-2017 sports season - at the Summer All-Russian Competitions in Tyumen (Rtk=0.534), and in the 2017-2018 sports season - at the Summer All-Russian Competitions in Tyumen and Olympic Games in Pyeongchang (Rtk=0.720-0.717), which indicated the high level of significance of this indicator in the achievement of the final result at the main start of the Olympic cycle.

The dynamics of the coefficients of correlation of the relative maximum power rate (W⁶rel) was characterized by the unidirectional positive ("+" in sign) changes in the strength of relationship within the range from 0.584-0.738 in the 2014-2015 sports season to 0.442-0.894 in the 2017-2018 sports season. The peak level of correlation coefficients in the 2014-2015 sports season was reached at the World Championship in Falun (Rtk=0.738), in the 2015-2016 sports season - at the World Cup stage in Stockholm (Rtk=0.670), in the 2016-2017 sports season - at the Russian Cup Final in Syktyvkar (Rtk=0.566) and World Championship in Lahti (Rtk=0.405), and in the 2017-2018 sports season - at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang (Rtk=0.894), thus indicating the high level of significance of this indicator in the formation of the final result. The characteristic feature of relative maximum power is the unidirectional vector of the correlation coefficients in terms of the sign ("+") and stability of the strength of relationship at average and high level at all stages of the Olympic cycle.

Conclusions. The correlation analysis of the maximal alactate work efficiency and competitive performance rates at the important Olympic starts revealed that successful performances at the main starts of the sprint race season were due to the high level of development of the speed ability associated with the achievement of the high pedaling speed (in our case, the equivalent of movement speed, including the ability to quickly accelerate and reach the peak maximum rate both load-free and under maximum load) and the level of development of maximum alactate power (absolute and relative values) against the background of the high level of realization of the athletes' power potential.

References

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Corresponding author: malta94@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to identify the dynamics of correlation relationship between maximal alactate work efficiency and athletic performance of highly-skilled female racing skiers in individual sprint skiing at different stages of the annual and Olympic training cycles.

Methods and structure of the study. We analyzed the results demonstrated by 22 female athletes aged 22-27 years, specializing in different types of competitive activity and having different sports qualifications (from CMS to WCMS). The maximal alactate work efficiency (speed ability and ability to display maximum alactate power) was analyzed at the beginning and at the end of each preparatory period throughout the 2015-2018 Olympic cycle. The list of main starts of the Olympic cycle included: All-Russian Competitions in cross-country skiing in Tyumen held at the end of the snowless preparatory period and associated with the completion of the basic stage of the snowless period (late September), Russian Cup Finals, World Championships and Olympic Games, World Cup stages (2015-2016 sports season) held in the middle of the competitive period and associated with the achievement of the peak level (February, March) at the main start - Russian Championship in Tyumen at the end of the competitive period - and with the possibility to qualify for further centralized training for the next sports season (April).

Results and conclusions. The correlation analysis made it possible to identify the most informative indicators of maximal alactate work efficiency determining the effectiveness of competitive performance in sprint races, which formed the basis for the nomenclature of model characteristics (by year of the Olympic cycle) of the speed ability and ability to display maximum alactate power in the highly-skilled female racing skiers preparing for the XXIV Winter Olympic Games (Beijing 2022).