MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. Functional asymmetry, which implies the unequal development and strength of an individual’s right and left arms and legs, influences athletes’ physical abilities and should be taken into account in biathletes’ training to improve their results, according to the findings by researchers from the Siberian Federal University, co-researcher Svetlana Khudik told TASS.
Functional asymmetry can be divided into motor, sensor and psychic categories. Motor asymmetry, i.e. a set of signs showing imbalances in the functions of arms, legs, the halves of the body and even the face, where some muscles are more developed and prepared than others, are especially important for athletes. This asymmetry generally influences the abilities to run, swim, ski, twist a hula hoop or throw clubs.
Scientists from the Siberian Federal University have studied the influence of functional asymmetry on biathletes’ skate technique.
“The V2 skate skiing is the basic movement technique for these athletes. In this case, the imbalance in the work of legs and arms is visually undetectable. However, functional asymmetry can be seen in the work of the athletes’ trunk: when a biathlete makes a push with the poles to move with his right or his left leg, the imbalance is found to a larger extent at one of the sides (the right or the left) coinciding with the side of the athlete’s lead foot. The findings have shown that functional asymmetry does not always have a negative effect: biathletes’ coaches need to smooth this imbalance in some cases and increase it in others,” one of the researchers said.
Khudik and her colleagues analyzed the training process of young athletes from the Krasnoyarsk Olympic Reserve sports school: they made video records of the lessons and polled their coaches.
The analysis has shown that the coaches pay no attention to functional asymmetry and a child intuitively selects the lead arm himself.
“Functional asymmetry, which manifests itself in the one-sided work of the biathlete’s body, results in the unequal step on the main (lead) and ‘lagging’ foot by its length and duration: a longer run is made by the foot coinciding with the side of the trunk’s inclination,” Khudik said.
Researchers of the Siberian Federal University led by Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences Alexander Chikurov subsequently intend to analyze biathletes’ technique using special video equipment. They are also planning to prepare more detailed recommendations on how functional asymmetry can be used to achieve higher sports results.