ABSTRACT
Freestyle snowsport has emerged as one of the fastest growing Winter Olympic sports in the past decade, with a record number of 5 freestyle events featuring at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. With more countries producing athletes capable of competing on the international scene than ever before, national performance programmes have invested more in conventional high performance support services, including sport science and strength and conditioning to investigate where applied science can support and impact upon freestyle performance. Despite a growth in performance support and the explosion in microtechnology tracking athlete activity loading, no countries/teams have published data from freestyle athletes in training or competition. This has left a void in empirical evidence concerning the sport’s key physical demands. Commonly, much of what is currently known about freestyle snowsport is derived from research in Alpine Skiing and other aerial based sports such as Gymnastics. Of concern currently is the high prevalence of sports injuries impacting elite male and female freestyle athletes. Greater awareness of the training and competition activity loading would greatly increase understanding and ability to offer evidence-based injury prevention/performance solutions. Using current available evidence and practical experience gained by the author in the field, this chapter provides the reader with a knowledge of demands and challenges faced when working with freestyle athletes along with applied strength and conditioning recommendations to prepare athletes for elite competition.
