A NEW SKATE ALLOWING POWERFUL PLANTAR FLEXIONS IMPROVES PERFORMANCE

To prevent the tip of the blade from scratching through the ice, the t echnique in speed skating requires that plantar flexion is largely sup pressed during the gliding push off. This not only prevents the planta r flexors from contributing to external work but also causes the skate r to lose contact with the ice long before the knee is fully extended. To prevent these disadvantages of the gliding technique, a new skate was developed that permits the shoe to rotate relative to the blade in a hinge between shoe and blade. In a case control study the progressi on between the 1993/1994 and 1994/1995 skating seasons of 11 male skat ers from a regional junior selection who consented to switch to this n ew skate was compared with the progression of 72 skaters of this and a ll other regional and national male junior selections of The Netherlan ds. The experimental group appeared to improve their personal best tim es by 6.2 +/- 2.3%, which is a significantly (P < 0.001) larger progre ss than the 2.5 +/- 1.6% improvement of the control group. The new ska te will therefore most likely add anew dimension to the art of speed s kating.