ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Exercise Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1498911
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical, Physiological and Technical Development in Youth AthletesView all 12 articles
Does Inter-limb Asymmetry Matter in Adolescent Speed Skaters?
Provisionally accepted
- 1Harbin Sport University, Harbin, China
- 2Heilongjiang Research Institute of Sports Science, Harbin, China
- 3Heilongjiang Vocational College of Winter Sports, Harbin, China
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Inter-limb asymmetry (IA) has been shown to impact athletic performance, but its relationship with speed skating performance is not yet clear. To investigate the effect of IA in lower limb strength on skating time in adolescent speed skaters, 17 male adolescent speed skaters (age: 16.65 ± 0.79 years, height: 176.63 ± 6.45 cm, weight: 63.08 ± 9.51 kg) underwent body composition, isokinetic knee strength, multi-direction (vertical, horizontal and lateral) single-leg squat jump and single-leg drop jump tests (from a 20 cm box) at the end of the season to assess the IA. The results showed that most lateral single-leg squat jump (LSJ) related variables such as relative lateral peak force (7.40 ± 0.67 N/kg vs. 7.03 ± 0.61 N/kg, P < 0.001, ES = 1.32), relative lateral impulse (Imp-L) (2.67±0.23 Ns/kg vs. 2.45±0.24 Ns/kg, P = 0.043, ES = 0.94) and take-off velocity (2.81 ± 0.20 m/s vs. 2.59 ± 0.30 m/s, P = 0.001, ES = 0.83) showed a significant left-sided dominance, and increased corresponding asymmetry prolonged 100m and 500m skating times. Furthermore, increased asymmetry in single-leg vertical drop jump (VDJ) height also prolonged 100m skating time. For adolescent speed skaters, the LSJ and VDJ tasks exhibit good sensitivity to the lower limb strength asymmetry, and increases in corresponding asymmetries may have negative effects on speed skating performance.
Keywords: inter-limb difference1, limb dominance2, squat jump3, drop jump4, isokinetic testing5
Received: 19 Sep 2024; Accepted: 29 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jin, Wang, Zhao, Bi, Diao, Zhang and Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Li Yan, Harbin Sport University, Harbin, China
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