Norlén A.1,2, Westin M.2,3, Werner S.3
1The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden, 2Hela Kroppen Physiotherapy, Stockholm, Sweden, 3Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm Sports Trauma Research Center, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Stockholm, Sweden
Background: Irrespective of gender skiers at Swedish Alpine Ski High schools are more likely to sustain injuries in the left leg compared to the right.
Purpose: The aim was to develop and study the reliability of five questions for identifying side dominance and to evaluate side dominance in competitive alpine skiers.
Methods: Prior to the start of the study a questionnaire about side dominance was developed and tested for reliability using a test-retest design. The questionnaire included five questions about side dominance, i.e. what hand/arm (left/right) or foot/leg (left/right) that one prefers to use as the first choice when writing, throwing, kicking a ball, jumping over a fence and stair climbing. A question whether the skier has a safer/better ski turn to the left or to the right was also included. The questionnaire was answered one time by 274 skiers and two times by 121 skiers.
Results: The questions about writing, throwing and kicking a ball showed a very good agreement, while jumping over a fence and stair climbing showed a fair agreement. A number of 243 skiers were found to have a right-sided dominance and seven skiers a left- sided dominance. Out of those 121 skiers who answered the questionnaire twice, 70 answered at both test occasions that they had a safer/better ski turn. All but one skier reported that they had a safer/better ski turn in one direction. In addition, these skiers showed a right-sided dominance.
Conclusion(s): The reliability test of the questionnaire about side dominance showed that the tasks writing, throwing and kicking a ball had a very good agreement. Alpine ski students showed a right-sided dominance, irrespective of gender.
Implications: Alpine skiers should probably take the side dominance into consideration when it comes to skiing performance and injury prevention.
Funding acknowledgements: No fundings were obtained
Topic: Sport & sports injuries
Ethics approval: The present study was approved by the Regional Ethics Committee in Stockholm, Dnr 2006/833-31/1.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
