INTRODUCTION: The development of carving skis and carving technique in alpine skiing has increased the importance of balance and proprioception training for skiers. Noé & Paillard (2005) compared national to regional ski racers in an unstable position with or without ski boots. The 2 groups had similar results with ski boots, but the national skiers were worse without ski boots. This might be a long term effect of repetitive wearing of ski boots. The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of ski boots on a) balance performance of alpine skiers with different skill levels and b) intermuscular coordination differences. METHOD: 84 experienced skiers (ES) and 66 ski racers (SR) of the Skigymnasium Stams were tested two-legged with and without ski boots on the MFT S3 Test. This System allows evaluation of balance performance during a lateral and a forward/backward test. Additionally 10 ES underwent the same test with surface electromyography (EMG) to assess intermuscular activity of the M. peroneus brevis (PB), M. tibialis anterior (TA), M. gastrocnemius lateralis (GL), M. vastus lateralis (VL), M. biceps femoris (BF), M. obliquus externus abdominis (OE) and M. lumbar erector spinae (LES). EMG-data were recorded and processed with Noraxon MyoResearch 2000. For statistical analysis (SPSS 12.0, p <0.05) a Kolmogorov-Smirnov-Test (examination of normal distribution), a dependent and independent t-Test (to check the differences between the two test situations, skill levels and gender) were used. RESULTS: Table 1 illustrates a highly significant influence of ski boots on balance performance. Furthermore highly significant differences were found between ES and SR, but no significant gender differences could be seen. Figure 1 displays the mean EMG activity during the lateral test. The group average snows no significant difference between activation, out there are major differences within the group. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The results of this study concur with Noé & Paillard (2005) - ski boots have a negative influence on balance performance. But it did not show that ski racers have worse stability without boots than normal skiers. This might be a result of increased balance / proprioception training, which is a major training focus in Stams. Most ski racers train balance barefoot, so a focus is set on the ankle joint Due to the large number of ACL injuries in recreational skiing and ski racing, proprioception training should be more concentrated on knee stability to be more ski specific.
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