Athletic performance assessments are important for identifying physical giftedness, monitoring athlete progress and supporting training recommendations. Sprint performance is a key component in athlete success both in athletics and field-based sports, and talent identification testing batteries often include sprint and jump assessments. Jumping and sprinting share a number of similar characteristics and research has shown that the relationships between sprint and jump tests depend on the recorded segment of the sprinting task, type of jump performed, and the speed and sex of the athlete. The majority of this research has been conducted in small, single sex, similar athlete cohorts and there has yet to be an analysis of a large cohorts multi-sport population with both male and female groups. Understanding the relationships between sprint ability and horizontal jump performance, based on large groups of athletes separated by sex can provide great insight into the shared and independent value of sprint and jump performance tests to support athlete testing and development. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between horizontal jump tests and sprint performance within different athlete sexes and sprint ability. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study with a large population sample of multisport athletes, with differing sprint and jump abilities. The associations and relationships between horizontal jump performance in standing broad jump (SBJ) and standing triple jump (STJ) with 0-10m and 30-40m sprint time in a group of athletes participating in a talent identification event were investigated in this study. Correlations and linear regressions were assessed with athletes grouped only by sex (male (n = 742), and female (n = 610)), and then grouped by sex and speed (fast = -0.5 SD, slow = +0.5 SD) for both 0-10m and 30-40m time separately. When grouped only by sex there were very large and large associations between sprint and jump measures (r = -0.533 to -0.717), and linear regression equations explained 37.4% to 55.5% of the variance. When grouped by sex and speed, slow athletes showed stronger associations (r = -0.353 to -0.488) than fast athletes (r = -0.088to -0.307). Linear regressions explained 20.3% to 28.5% of the variance in slow athletes, but only up to 12.0% of the variance explained in fast athletes. Linear regressions in slow and fast males all included SBJ as a predictor, but not STJ. Linear regressions in slow and fast females all included STJ as a predictor, but not SBJ. Overall, these results support the use of general sprint and jump tests for slower athletes, the importance of both sprint and jumps tests with higher resolution in faster athletes, as well as the utility of different jump tests to evaluate lower limb performance between sexes. / Graduate

Bakgrund: Medvetenhet om kropp och rörelse nämns ofta som en viktig fakor i att öka prestationsförmåga, undvika skador, nå högre livskvalitet och förbätta sjukdomstillstånd. Det har länge funnits ambitioner att förbättra rörelse genom ökad medvetenhet. Feldenkraismetoden är en metod för att förbättra rörelse genom förhöjd rörelsemedvetenhet och är förenlig med nutida vetenskap men förhållandevis lite empirisk forskning stöder metodens effektivitet. De flesta tidigare studier har varit på någon form av dysfunktion och ofta subjektiv upplevelse snarare än objektiva värden. Det har varit svårt för Feldenkraispedagoger att finna rätt mätmetoder för att utvärdera metoden. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att utvärdera effekten av träning för ökad rörelsemedvetenhet enligt Feldenkraismetoden på rörelse hos friska personer genom kvantitativ mätning. Metod: Friska kvinnor i en experimentgrupp (n=4, 30±7 år) och en kontrollgrupp (n=4, 26±2 år) testades med fem kvantitativa rörelsetester; one-leg standing balance, one-leg standing long jump, standing triple jump, star excursion balance test och upper quarter Y-balance test, innan och efter en intervention ledd av en auktoriserad Feldenkraispedagog där experimentgruppen genomgick tio träningsfällen enligt Feldenkraismetoden under fem veckors tid. Resultat: Signifikant förbättring (P≤0,05) i förhållande till både förtest och kontrollgrupp sågs vid star excursion balance test för vänster ben. Slutsats: Träning för ökad rörelsemedvetenhet enligt Feldenkraismetoden verkar kunna leda till förbättring i kvantitativt mätt rörelse hos friska kvinnor. Vidare forskning med fler deltagare är nödvändig för att bättre besvara hypotesen att träning för ökad rörelsemedvetenhet genom en intervention med Feldenkraismetoden leder till förbättrade resultat i de utvalda testerna hos friska personer. / Background: Awareness of body and movement is often mentioned as an important factor in increasing performance ability, avoiding injury, reaching a higher quality of life and improving conditions of illness. There has long been an ambition to improve movement through increased awareness. The Feldenkrais method is a method for improving movement through increased movement-awareness and is compatible with modern science. but comparatively little empirical research supports the methods effectivity. Most earlier studies have been on subjects with some form of dysfunction and often on subjective experience rather than objective measurements. It has been challenging for Feldenkrais-practitioners to find suitable ways of measurement for evaluating the method. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of training for increased movement-awareness according to the Feldenkrais method on movement in healthy subjects by quantitative measurements. Method: Healthy women in an experiment-group (n=4, 30±7 years) and a control-group (n=4, 26±2 years) were tested with five quantitative movement-tests; one-leg standing balance, one-leg standing long jump, standing triple jump, star excursion balance test and upper quarter Y-balance test, before and after an intervention where the experiment-group went through ten training sessions according to the Feldenkrais method during five weeks time. Results: Significant improvement (P≤0,05) in comparison to both pre-test and change in the control-group was seen for star excursion balance test of the left leg. Conclusion: Training for increased movement-awareness according to the Feldenkrais method seem to be able to improve quantitatively measured movement in healthy women. Further research with more participants is necessary to better answer the hypothesis that training for increased movement-awareness in accordance with the Feldenkrais method leads to improved results in the chosen tests in healthy persons.

Title: A comparison of dynamic abilities in nordic ski disciplines Aim: This dissertation aims to compare the dynamic abilities of cross country skiers and ski jumper in age between 12 to 15. Clarification of whether or not a training process of those two athlete groups has a crucial impact on the development of mentioned abilities compared to the other hobby sports group (target group). Methodology: This dissertation is conceived as empiric-theoretical. It analyses the results of samples to verify the hypothesis. There were three groups consisting of 10 samples (athletes) in total. The samples were tested in horizontal jumps (long jump, triple jump, multiple jumps) and vertical jumps (squat jump, counter movement jump). In all tests, it was decided to use only the best of all three attempts for the results. Findings: Development of dynamic abilities during the training process has a positive impact on their development in general. Both cross country skiers and ski jumpers achieved better results than the target group. Furthermore, ski jumpers performed better than cross country skiers. Keywords: physical health, sport performance, cross country skiing, ski jumping, squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), long jump, triple jump, multiple jumps