In the just-concluded Beijing Winter Olympics figure skating men's singles free skating final, Chinese-American Chen Wei completed five four-week jumps and won the championship with a total score of 218.63 points.
Figure skating, which combines artistic beauty and sports dynamics, is also known as "ice ballet". The picture shows Japan's Yu Yu yu string 丨 cctv
In major figure skating competitions, high-quality spins and jumps are important to achieve good rankings. According to previous statistics, in the 4-and-a-half-minute competition, figure skaters have to turn nearly 100 laps on average.
Jin Boyang jumped around in the opening of a hooker, and most of the referees scored a full score 丨 cctv
However, as a general viewer, I am curious: when turning on the super gyro mode on the ice... How do figure skaters do it without getting dizzy?
Figure 丨cctv
Vestibular system response is key
Figure skaters gracefully and coherently complete a series of movements such as gliding, jumping, spinning and landing, involving complex biomechanics, balance control and coordination of multiple sensorimotor systems.
In this case, to maintain a delicate balance while completing the movements, this requires the involvement of the Vestibular system of the inner ear.
The vestibular system is the perceptual system responsible for the body's own sense of balance and spatial sense, and is also an important structural basis for ensuring that people maintain coordination and balance in complex movements. From the anatomical results, it is composed of three semicircular tubes and otolith organs in the inner ear that are roughly perpendicular to each other, which can feel the relevant stimulus signals triggered by rotation and linear movement, respectively, and then trigger the vestibulo-ocular reflex (hereinafter referred to as "VOR"), thereby ensuring that the vision of the eye remains relatively stable when people move.
For example, when people are looking at things, VOR will play an "automatic antistasis" role, using the receptors in the inner ear to distinguish the direction and amplitude of movement, and transmit this information to the muscles around the eyes, so that the eyeballs and the head movement direction are opposite, canceling out the shaking caused by the movement.
When the head is turned to one side, the eyes automatically turn to the other side | solvelearningdisabilities.com
Sports that require the integration of multiple complex movements, such as figure skating and ballet, strongly stimulate the vestibular system. So how do researchers assess and quantify these stimuli? Athletes can't always be tied to various detection equipment to skate and jump when they compete...
It doesn't matter, it can be simulated in an experimental environment. Specifically, the subject sits in a chair with a special rotation function and wears an eye movement capture device.
In a dark environment, the sudden rotation of the chair can induce nystagmus. By quantifying parameters such as the rotation speed of the chair and the speed of eye movement, the reactivity of VOR can be indirectly evaluated.
Among several evaluation indicators, the most commonly used and important is the VOR gain, which is the ratio of the speed of eye rotation to the speed of head rotation. For example, when tested in light with fixed points, the VOR gain should be close to 1, that is, the equal and opposite rotation of the eyeballs produced in response to the rotation of the head is conducive to stabilizing the gaze.
In general, the lower the VOR gain, the less "sensitive" the vestibular response, in other words, under the same rotational stimulus, the figure skater's eyeball rotation is smaller and less likely to cause dizziness.
Various rotations do not dizziness, probably lies
The vestibular system "becomes sluggish"...
In the course of the simulation experiment, the right use of this high-tech chair to evaluate the function of the VOR, how to set the parameters of rotation, but also a lot of learning.
Schematic diagram of a rotating chair, vertical rotation (left) and rotation after tilting (right 丨 References[8]
First of all, the different placement of the chair can stimulate different balance receptors. For example, when the chair is placed vertically, rotation can stimulate the participant's semicircular tube; while tilting the chair moderately and then rotating can stimulate the otolithia.
In addition, the rotation speed setting of the chair is also very clever, and only by setting different rotation speeds and rotation accelerations can the VOR be evaluated in an all-round way.
There are two most common ways of rotation, sine rotation and trapezoidal rotation: sine rotation, that is, first accelerate around a direction, then decelerate, and then accelerate and then decelerate around the opposite direction, according to the rotation time and rotational angular velocity of the drawing graph, similar to the sine wave curve; similarly, trapezoidal rotation, is to accelerate to the established speed first, and then maintain a uniform rotation, so that the data graph obtained is similar to a trapezoid.
In the sinusoidal rotation experiment and the trapezoidal rotation experiment, the figure skater VOR gain is lower 丨 References[8]
In 2008, researchers at the University of Caen in France invited 11 figure skaters and 11 controls to compare the difference in VOR gain between the two groups in the sinusoidal rotation experiment and the trapezoidal rotation experiment.
The results showed that the VOR gain of the figure skater group was significantly reduced compared with the control group, that is, under the same rotational stimulation, compared with the controls who had exercise habits but did not involve strong vestibular stimulation, the figure skaters had less eye rotation and were less prone to dizziness.
After that, the researchers tilted the chair moderately and then rotated it, which can strongly stimulate the otolithic tools and induce dizziness. In this "dizziness" stimulation experiment, the figure skaters' dizziness scores were also significantly lower than those of the control group.
These results show that long-term figure skating training makes the vestibular system gradually accustomed to the spatial change stimulation of the head (habituation), so VOR becomes "sluggish" to these stimuli, which is less likely to be dizzy, and then successfully achieves a high level of posture and balance control.
Not dizzy, training skills are also important
The vestibular functional plasticity demonstrated by figure skaters in their studies is also applicable to other special working groups, such as astronauts, navies, and ballet dancers.
For example, researchers at the French Institute of Space Medicine have conducted 10 professional and systematic training sessions for astronauts, that is, to stimulate the vestibular system mainly through the rotation of special chairs. The results found that these astronauts had less nystagmus amplitude, lower VOR response, and less dizziness than before training.
To achieve the completion of exquisite movements without dizziness, in addition to the amount of training, some special skills are also very important.
Usually, the link that is most prone to dizziness occurs when it comes to a sudden turn or sudden stop. Therefore, figure skaters usually accelerate or gradually decelerate to avoid instantaneous and sharp changes in the position of the head.
In addition, when what the eye sees and the information of the vestibular system conflict with each other, it is easy to induce motion sickness. But the brain is highly malleable, and the vestibular and perceptual cognition interact with each other.
Therefore, in training, when the figure skater's head rotates, he will deliberately train himself to stare at a fixed point, or imagine a fixed visual target directly in front of him, so that the degree of matching between the head and the eye is adjusted, the VOR reactivity is reduced, and the dizziness is alleviated.
A schematic, of course, this is just one of the tricks丨 https://earandbalance.co.uk/vor-exercise-gaze-stabilisation-exercises/
"Cu Ding solves the cattle, practices for a long time and the skills are almost Tao." Of course, the top figure skaters have good talents, but their long-term training and skill polishing can also help overcome the basic conditioned reflex of "turning in circles and being dizzy", in other words, turning... Just get used to it.
How about, more turns + staring at fixed point turns, some figure skating training tips, have you learned?
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[6] Tanguy SG, Quarck GM, Etard OM, Gauthier AF, Denise P. Are otolithic inputs interpreted better in figure skaters? Neuroreport. 2008;19(5):565-568. doi:10.1097/WNR.0b013e3282f9427e
[7] Tanguy S, Quarck G, Etard O, Gauthier A, Denise P. Vestibulo-ocular reflex and motion sickness in figure skaters. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2008;104(6):1031-1037. doi:10.1007/s00421-008-0859-7
[8] Brey RH, McPherson JH, Lynch RM (2008b) Technique, interpretation, and usefulness of whole body rotational testing. In: Jacobson GP, Shepard NT (eds) Balance function assessment and management. Plural, San Diego, pp 281–317
rey RH, McPherson JH, Lynch RM (2008b) Technique, interpretation, and usefulness of whole body rotational testing. In: Jacobson GP, Shepard NT (eds) Balance function
assessment and management. Plural, San Diego, pp 281–317
Author: Cai Mengfei
Editor: Malt Yang
An AI
I chose not to turn... I don't faint!
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