Peak Age and Performance Progression in World-Class Weightlifting and Powerlifting Athletes

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 1357-1363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Solberg ◽  
Will G. Hopkins ◽  
Gøran Paulsen ◽  
Thomas A. Haugen
Keyword(s):  
Individual Performance ◽  
Peak Performance ◽  
Performance Improvements ◽  
Quadratic Curve ◽  
Performance Trends ◽  
World Class ◽  
Age Of Peak Performance ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Performance Development ◽  
And Performance

Purpose:To quantify age of peak performance and performance improvements in the years preceding peak age in elite weightlifting and powerlifting athletes using results from powerlifting World Championships in 2003–2017 and weightlifting World Championships and Olympic Games in 1998–2017.Methods:Individual performance trends were derived by fitting a quadratic curve separately to each athlete’s performance and age data. Effects were evaluated using magnitude-based inferences.Results:Peak age (mean [SD]) was 35 (7) y for powerlifters and 26 (3) y for weightlifters, a large most likely substantial difference of 9, ±1 y (mean, 90% confidence limit). Men showed possibly higher peak age than women in weightlifting (0.8, ±0.7 y; small) and a possibly lower peak age in powerlifting (1.3, ±1.8 y; trivial). Peak age of athletes who ever won a medal was very likely less than that of nonmedalists in weightlifting (1.3, ±0.6 y; small), while the difference in powerlifters was trivial but unclear. Five-year improvements prior to peak age were 12% (10%) for powerlifters and 9% (7%) for weightlifters, a small possibly substantial difference (2.9, ±2.1%). Women exhibited possibly greater improvements than men in powerlifting (2.7, ±3.8%; small) and very likely greater in weightlifting (3.5, ±1.6%; small). Medalists possibly improved less than nonmedalists among powerlifters (−1.7, ±2.3%; small), while the difference was likely trivial for weightlifters (2.3, ±1.8%).Conclusion:These novel insights on performance development will be useful for practitioners evaluating strategies for achieving success.

Peak Age and Performance Progression in World-Class Track-and-Field Athletes

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1122-1129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Haugen ◽  
Paul A. Solberg ◽  
Carl Foster ◽  
Ricardo Morán-Navarro ◽  
Felix Breitschädel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
International Association ◽  
Individual Performance ◽  
Distance Runners ◽  
Linear Modeling ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Performance Improvements ◽  
Long Distance Running ◽  
Performance Trends ◽  
Performance Development ◽  
And Performance

The aim of this study was to quantify peak age and improvements over the preceding years to peak age in elite athletic contestants according to athlete performance level, sex, and discipline. Individual season bests for world-ranked top 100 athletes from 2002 to 2016 (14,937 athletes and 57,049 individual results) were downloaded from the International Association of Athletics Federations’ website. Individual performance trends were generated by fitting a quadratic curve separately to each athlete’s performance and age data using a linear modeling procedure. Mean peak age was typically 25–27 y, but somewhat higher for marathon and male throwers (∼28–29 y). Women reached greater peak age than men in the hurdles and middle- and long-distance running events (mean difference, ±90% CL: 0.6, ±0.3 to 1.9, ±0.3 y: small to moderate). Male throwers had greater peak age than corresponding women (1.3, ±0.3 y: small). Throwers displayed the greatest performance improvements over the 5 y prior to peak age (mean [SD]: 7.0% [2.9%]), clearly ahead of jumpers, long-distance runners, hurdlers, middle-distance runners, and sprinters (3.4, ±0.2% to 5.2, ±0.2%; moderate to large). Similarly, top 10 athletes showed greater improvements than top 11–100 athletes in all events (1.0, ±0.9% to 1.8, ±1.1%; small) except throws. Women improved more than men in all events (0.4, ±0.2% to 2.9, ±0.4%) except sprints. This study provides novel insight on performance development in athletic contestants that are useful for practitioners when setting goals and evaluating strategies for achieving success.

Paralympic Sprint Performance Between 1992 and 2012

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1052-1054 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Grobler ◽  
Suzanne Ferreira ◽  
Elmarie Terblanche
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Lower Limb ◽  
Performance Improvements ◽  
Olympic Athletes ◽  
Performance Trends ◽  
The Difference ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Track Athletes ◽  
Made In ◽  
Paralympic Games

The Paralympic Games have undergone many changes since their inception in 1960, one being the advances made in running-specific prostheses (RSPs) for track athletes with lower-limb amputations.Purpose:To investigate the sprinting-performance changes in athletes with lower-limb amputations since 1992 to assess whether the influence of developments in RSP technology is evident.Methods:The results of the Olympic and Paralympic Games ranging between 1992 and 2012 for the 100-m and 200-m were collected, and performance trends, percentage change in performance, and competition density (CD) were calculated.Results:The results indicate that the greatest performance increases were seen in athletes with lower-limb amputations (T42 = 26%, T44 = 14%). These performance improvements were greater than for Olympic athletes (<3%), as well as Paralympic athletes from other selected classes (<10%). The T42 and T44 classes also showed the lowest CD values.Discussion:These results suggest that although there is an overall trend for improved Paralympic sprint performances, RSP technology has played a noteworthy role in the progression of performances of athletes with amputations. It is also hypothesized that the difference in the performance improvements between the T42 and T44 classes is due to the level of disability and therefore the extent to which technology is required to enable locomotion.Conclusion:It is evident that RSP technology has played a significant role in the progression of performances in athletes with lower-limb amputations.

scholarly journals Competitive Performance, Training Load and Physiological Responses During Tapering in Young Swimmers

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 125-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Argyris G. Toubekis ◽  
Evgenia Drosou ◽  
Vassilios Gourgoulis ◽  
Savvas Thomaidis ◽  
Helen Douda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Effect Size ◽  
Training Load ◽  
Confidence Limits ◽  
Competitive Performance ◽  
Performance Training ◽  
Performance Improvements ◽  
Hand Grip ◽  
Baseline Test ◽  
The Difference ◽  
And Performance

Abstract The study examined the changes of training load and physiological parameters in relation to competitive performance during a period leading to a national championship. The training content of twelve swimmers (age: 14.2±1.3 yrs) was recorded four weeks before the national championship (two weeks of normal training and two weeks of the taper). The training load was calculated: i) by the swimmer’s session-RPE score (RPE-Load), ii) by the training intensity levels adjusted after a 7x200-m progressively increasing intensity test (LA-Load). Swimmers completed a 400- m submaximal intensity test, a 15 s tethered swimming and hand-grip strength measurements 34-35 (baseline: Test 1), 20-21 (before taper: Test 2) and 6-7 (Test 3) days before the national championship. Performance during the national championship was not significantly changed compared to season best (0.1±1.6%; 95% confidence limits: -0.9, 1.1%; Effect Size: 0.02, p=0.72) and compared to performance before the start of the two-week taper period (0.9±1.7%; 95% confidence limits: 0.3, 2.1%; Effect size: 0.12, p=0.09). No significant changes were observed in all measured physiological and performance related variables between Test 1, Test 2, and Test 3. Changes in RPE-Load (week-4 vs. week-1) were correlated with changes in performance (r=0.63, p=0.03) and the RPE-Load was correlated with the LALoad (r=0.80, p=0.01). The estimation of the session-RPE training load may be helpful for taper planning of young swimmers. Increasing the difference between the normal and last week of taper training load may facilitate performance improvements.

Elite Junior Throwers Unlikely to Remain at the Top Level in the Senior Category

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Gennaro Boccia ◽  
Marco Cardinale ◽  
Paolo Riccardo Brustio
Keyword(s):  
Transition Rate ◽  
Peak Performance ◽  
Male Athletes ◽  
Relative Age Effect ◽  
The World ◽  
Elite Level ◽  
Senior Athletes ◽  
World Class ◽  
Age Of Peak Performance ◽  
Career Performance

Purpose: This study investigated (1) the transition rate of elite world-class throwers, (2) the age of peak performance in either elite junior and/or elite senior athletes, and (3) if relative age effect (RAE) influences the chance of being considered elite in junior and/or senior category. Methods: The career performance trajectories of 5108 throwers (49.9% females) were extracted from the World Athletics database. The authors identified throwers who had reached the elite level (operationally defined as the World all-time top 50 ranked for each age category) in either junior and/or senior category and calculated the junior-to-senior transition rate. The age of peak performance and the RAE were also investigated. Results: The transition rate at 16 and 18 years of age was 6% and 12% in males and 16% and 24% in females, respectively. Furthermore, elite senior throwers reached their personal best later in life than elite junior throwers. The athletes of both genders considered elite in the junior category showed a large RAE. Interestingly, male athletes who reached the elite level in senior category also showed appreciable RAE. Conclusions: Only a few of the athletes who reach the top 50 in the world at 16 or 18 years of age manage to become elite senior athletes, underlining that success at the beginning of an athletic career does not predict success in the athlete’s senior career. Moreover, data suggest that being relatively older may confer a benefit across the whole career of male throwers.

Peak Age and Relative Performance Progression in International Cross-Country Skiers

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Jacob Walther ◽  
Roy Mulder ◽  
Dionne A. Noordhof ◽  
Thomas A. Haugen ◽  
Øyvind Sandbakk
Keyword(s):  
Sex Difference ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Individual Performance ◽  
Performance Level ◽  
Relative Performance ◽  
Performance Trends ◽  
Top Performers ◽  
World Class ◽  
Cross Country Skiing ◽  
Cross Country

Purpose: To quantify peak age and relative performance progression toward peak age in cross-country skiing according to event type, sex, and athlete performance level. Methods: International Ski Federation (FIS) points (performance expressed relative to the best athlete) of athletes born between 1981 and 1991, competing in junior world championships or finishing top 30 in world championships or Olympics, were downloaded from the FIS website. Individual performance trends were derived by fitting a quadratic curve to each athletes FIS point and age data. Results: Peak age was 26.2 (2.3) years in distance and 26.0 (1.7) years in sprint events. The sex difference in peak age in sprint events was ∼0.8 years (small, P = .001), while there was no significant sex difference in peak age in distance events (P = .668). Top performers displayed higher peak ages than other athletes in distance (mean difference, ±95% confidence limits = 1.6 y, ±0.6 y, moderate, P < .001) and sprint events (1.0, ±0.6 y, moderate, P < .001). FIS point improvement over the 5 years preceding peak age did not differ between event types (P = .325), while men improved more than women in both events (8.8, ±5.4%, small, P = .002 and 7.5, ±6.4%, small, P = .002). Performance level had a large effect on improvement in FIS points in both events (P < .001). Conclusion: This study provides novel insights on peak age and relative performance progression among world-class cross-country skiers and can assist practitioners, sport institutions, and federations with goal setting and evaluating strategies for achieving success.

scholarly journals Swimrun: An emerging new endurance sport

2018 ◽  
pp. 53-58
Author(s):  
Romuald Lepers ◽  
François-Xavier Li ◽  
Paul James Stapley
Keyword(s):  
Open Water ◽  
Endurance Sport ◽  
Time Performance ◽  
Performance Trends ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Open Water Swimming ◽  
The Difference ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Trail Running

The swimrun is a new endurance team-sport based on two persons swimming and running alternatively through open water and mostly trails. The aim of this study was to analyse participation and performance trends for males, females and mixed duo team at the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun race (10 km open-water swimming and 65 km trail running). During the 2012–2016 period, the mean total time performance of the best athletes at the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun decreased significantly by 17 min/year for males, 40 min/year for mixed and 59 min/year for females duo, respectively. The difference in performance between the best males and females duo (26 ± 15%) was significantly greater compared to the difference between males and mixed duo (12 ± 8%). The number of swimrun races organized across the world has dramatically increased these last years and will probably continue to grow up in the future. Swimrun athletes are still not very experienced, thus both improvements in performance and reduction in sex difference are expected in the next decade.

scholarly journals Differentiating Endurance-and Speed-Adapted Types of Elite and World Class Milers According to Biomechanical, Pacing and Perceptual Responses during a Sprint Interval Session

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 2448
Author(s):  
Arturo Casado ◽  
Andrew Renfree ◽  
José Carlos Jaenes-Sánchez ◽  
Víctor Cuadrado-Peñafiel ◽  
Pedro Jiménez-Reyes
Keyword(s):  
Contact Time ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Interval Training ◽  
Active Recovery ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Repetition Time ◽  
Biomechanical Responses ◽  
World Class ◽  
The Difference ◽  
And Performance

The aim was to compare pacing, biomechanical and perceptual responses between elite speed-and endurance-adapted milers during a sprint interval training session (SIT). Twenty elite and world-class middle-distance runners (male: n = 16, female: n = 4; 24.95 ± 5.18 years; 60.89 ± 7 kg) were classified as either speed- or endurance-adapted milers according to their recent performances at 800 m or longer races than 1500 m (10 subjects per group). Participants performed 10 repetitions of 100 m sprints with 2 min of active recovery between each, and performance, perceptual and biomechanical responses were collected. The difference between accumulated times of the last and the first five repetitions was higher in speed-adapted milers (ES = 1.07) displaying a more positive pacing strategy. A higher coefficient of variation (CV%) was displayed across the session by speed-adapted milers in average repetition time, contact time, and affective valence (ES ≥ 1.15). Speed-adapted milers experienced lower rates of valence after the 4th repetition excepting at the 8th repetition (ES ≥ 0.99). Speed-adapted milers may need to display a more positive pacing profile than endurance-adapted milers and, therefore, would experience lower levels of affective valence and a more rapid increase of ground contact time during a SIT.

scholarly journals Origin of the Fastest 5 km, 10 km and 25 km Open-Water Swimmers—An Analysis from 20 Years and 9819 Swimmers

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (21) ◽  
pp. 11369
Author(s):  
Aldo Seffrin ◽  
Beat Knechtle ◽  
Rodrigo Luiz Vancini ◽  
Douglas de Assis Teles Santos ◽  
Claudio Andre Barbosa de Lira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Female Athletes ◽  
Open Water ◽  
The United States ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Performance Trends ◽  
Class Level ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
World Class ◽  
And Performance

In elite pool swimmers competing at world class level, mainly athletes from the United States of America and Australia are dominating. Little is known, however, for the nationality of dominating swimmers in elite open-water long-distance swimming races such as the official FINA races over 5 km, 10 km and 25 km—held since 2000. The aim of this study was to investigate the participation and performance trends by nationality of these elite open-water swimmers. Race results from all female and male swimmers competing in 5 km, 10 km and 25 km FINA races between 2000 and 2020 were analyzed. A total of 9819 swimmers competed between 2000 and 2020 in these races. The five countries that figure most times among the top ten in 5 km, 10 km and 25 km races over the years were Italy, Germany, Russia, Brazil and the Netherlands. In 10 km races, considering the all the athletes from each country, male athletes from Germany, Italy, and France presented faster race times than the other countries. In 10 km, female athletes presented no significant difference among the countries. In 5 and 25 km races, there were no differences between countries, for male and female athletes. Moreover, comparing only the 10 best results (top 10) from each country, there were no differences between countries in 5 km, 10 km and 25 km, for male and female athletes. Men were faster than women for all three distances. In summary, male swimmers from Europe (i.e., Germany, Italy, France) are dominating the 10 km FINA races. In the 5 km and 25 km FINA races, there is no dominating nationality, but among the top five countries in the top 10 over the years, three are European countries.

A Modification of the Payne-Jones Method of Identifying Abnormal Differences in WISC-R Performance and Verbal IQ's

1996 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis M. Hsu
Keyword(s):  
Full Scale ◽  
True Score ◽  
Verbal Iq ◽  
Score Difference ◽  
The Difference ◽  
And Performance

The difference (D) between a person's Verbal IQ (VIQ) and Performance IQ (PIQ) has for some time been considered clinically meaningful ( Kaufman, 1976 , 1979 ; Matarazzo, 1990 , 1991 ; Matarazzo & Herman, 1985 ; Sattler, 1982 ; Wechsler, 1984 ). Particularly useful is information about the degree to which a difference (D) between scores is “abnormal” (i.e., deviant in a standardization group) as opposed to simply “reliable” (i.e., indicative of a true score difference) ( Mittenberg, Thompson, & Schwartz, 1991 ; Silverstein, 1981 ; Payne & Jones, 1957 ). Payne and Jones (1957) proposed a formula to identify “abnormal” differences, which has been used extensively in the literature, and which has generally yielded good approximations to empirically determined “abnormal” differences ( Silverstein, 1985 ; Matarazzo & Herman, 1985 ). However applications of this formula have not taken into account the dependence (demonstrated by Kaufman, 1976 , 1979 , and Matarazzo & Herman, 1985 ) of Ds on Full Scale IQs (FSIQs). This has led to overestimation of “abnormality” of Ds of high FSIQ children, and underestimation of “abnormality” of Ds of low FSIQ children. This article presents a formula for identification of abnormal WISC-R Ds, which overcomes these problems, by explicitly taking into account the dependence of Ds on FSIQs.

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