Background: The inclusion of skateboarding in the Olympics suggests that athletes and coaches are seeking ways to enhance their chances of succeeding on the world stage. Understanding what constitutes performance, and what physical, neuromuscular, and biomechanical capacities underlie it, is likely critical to success.Objective: The aim was to overview the current literature and identify knowledge gaps related to competitive skateboarding performance and associated physical, technical, and tactical demands of Olympic skateboarding disciplines.Methods: A systematic scoping review was performed considering the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (Extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines. Data sources were MEDLINE (Ovid), Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and PubMed. We included all peer-reviewed literature after 1970 describing the physiological, neuromuscular, biomechanical, and/or tactical aspects of skateboarding.Results: Nineteen original articles explored the physiological (n = 9), biomechanical (n = 8), and technical (n = 10) demands of skateboarding. No research explored the tactical demands of competition. Moreover, although competitive males (n = 2 studies) and females (n = 1 study) were recruited as participants, no research directly related skateboarding demands to performance success in competitive environments.Conclusions: Ultimately, what constitutes and distinguishes competitive skateboarding is unexplored. There is some evidence indicating aspects of the sport require flexibility and elevated and fast force output of the lower limbs, which may be valuable when attempting to maximise ollie height. Nonetheless, a lack of ecological validity, such as using static ollie tests as opposed to rolling, restricted our ability to provide practical recommendations, and inconsistency of terminology complicated delineating discipline-specific outcomes. Future researchers should first look to objectively identify what skaters do in competition before assessing what qualities enable their performance.

Context: Horizontal hops can provide insight into how athletes can tolerate high-intensity single-leg stretch loads and are commonly used in athlete monitoring and injury management. Variables like flight, contact, and total time provide valuable diagnostic information to sports science professionals. However, gold-standard assessment tools (eg, 3-dimensional motion capture, force plates) require monetary and technological resources. Therefore, we used a tablet and free software to determine the between-rater, within-rater, and test–retest variability of the temporal events of multiple horizontal hop tests. Design: Reliability study. Methods: Nine healthy males (20.8 [1.3] y, 71.4 [9.8] kg, 171.7 [4.5] cm) across various university sports teams and clubs volunteered and performed several triple (3-Hop) and quintuple (5-Hop) horizontal hops over 3 testing sessions. Six raters detected temporal events from video to determine between-rater variability, while a single rater quantified within-session and test–retest variability. The temporal variables of flight time, ground contact time for each individual hop, and the total time of each hoping series were determined. The consistency of measures was interpreted using the coefficient of variation and interclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Results: Good to excellent between-rater consistency was observed for all hops (ICC = .85–1.00). Absolute (coefficient of variation ≤ 2.0%) and relative consistency (ICC = .98–1.00) was excellent. Test–retest variability showed acceptable levels of absolute consistency (coefficient of variation ≤ 8.7%) and good to excellent consistency in 10/16 variables (ICC = .81–.93), especially those later in the hopping cycle. Conclusions: A tablet and free digitizing software are reliable in detecting temporal events during multiple horizontal hops, which could have exciting implications for power diagnostics and return-to-play decisions. Therefore, rehabilitation and performance professionals can confidently utilize the highly accessible equipment from this study to track multiple hop performances.

Measuring striking forces is important to provide actionable insight for training and performance enhancement for combat sport athletes. Recent technology may provide a low-cost solution to an otherwise complicated kinetic assessment. The aim was to assess the reliability and validity of a water-filled training bag and integrated sensor for measuring peak impact force. A pendulum design was used to swing a range of known mass loads (kettlebells) from various heights to impact a stationary 21″ Aqua Training Bag^®. For each condition, the momentum of the mass at impact was calculated and compared with the measured impact force from a pressure sensor affixed to the side of the water-filled bag. Peak impact force was strongly associated with calculated momentum (r(18) = 0.96 [0.91, 0.99], p < 0.001), with a high degree of shared variance (92.7%, F(1,18) = 229.9, p < 0.001). There was almost perfect agreement for all reliability loading conditions (ICC = 0.995–0.999) and typical error was ≤ 5% (CV = 3.3–5.1). Impact kinetics from the sensor appear to be reliable and valid and may be integrated into practice and research. However, the utility of the instrumented bag for striking kinetics of athletes, and thus practical utility when used in the field, requires further investigation.

Notational analysis (NA) systems are regularly used to quantify sports performance but have not been adopted in competitive skateboarding. In this study, we aimed to develop an NA application to quantify outcome-related aspects of skateboarding judging criteria (trick selection, obstacle selection, and execution), leveraging known skatepark obstacles and trick classification from public broadcast footage (60 Hz) of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Men’s and Women’s semi-finals. We also assessed the intra- and inter-rater reliability of frame selection for key trick attempt events—take-off, event (obstacle interaction) start and end, and landing. Frame selection from 593 trick attempts (male = 324, female = 269) were found reliable (mean absolute difference (MAD) < 3 frames) by a single, experienced rater. Take-off (MAD: intra-rater = 1.43, inter-rater = 3.82 frames) and landing frame (MAD: intra-rater = 1.33, inter-rater = 1.55 frames) were more reliably selected than obstacle interaction (MAD: Inter = 2.04–2.26, Inter = 3.62–4.35 frames), attributed to obstacle and trick type. Generally, trick attempts over longer durations appeared less reliable, but still within useable limits; as such, the NA approach used in this study could be used for describing and understanding performance in elite street skateboarding.

Context: Light lower-limb wearable resistance has little effect on running biomechanics. However, asymmetrical wearable resistance may potentially alter the kinetics and kinematics of high speed, enabling greater loading or unloading of an injured or rehabilitative lower limb. Design: A cross-sectional study design was used to quantify the influence of asymmetric calf loading on the kinematics and kinetics during 90% maximum sprinting velocity. Methods: Following a familiarization session, 12 (male = 7 and female = 5) physically active volunteers ran at 90% of maximal velocity. In random order, participants ran with zero (0) wearable resistance and with loads of 300 g (L300) and 600 g (L600) fixed to one shank. A nonmotorized treadmill quantified vertical and horizontal kinetics and step kinematics. The kinetics and kinematics of the loaded (L0, L300, and L600) and unloaded (UL; UL0, UL300, and UL600) limbs were compared. Results: Vertical step ground reaction force of the loaded limb tended to increase between unloaded and 300 and 600 conditions (effect size [ES] = 0.48 to 0.76, all P ≤ .12), while the horizontal step force of the UL tended to decrease (ES = 0.54 to 1.32, all P ≤ .09) with greater external loading. Step length increased in the UL in 0 versus 300 and 600 conditions (ES = 0.60 to 0.70, all P ≤ .06). Step frequency decreased in the ULs in unloaded versus 300 and 600 conditions (ES = 0.73 to 1.10, all P ≤ .03). Mean step velocity tended to be greater in the ULs than the 300 and 600 conditions (ES = 0.52 to 1.01, all P ≤ .10). Only 4 of 16 variables were significantly different between the 300 and 600 conditions. Conclusions: Asymmetrical shank resistance could be used during high-speed running to reduce or increase the kinetic loading of an injured/rehabilitative limb during return to play protocols. Asymmetrical wearable resistance could also be used to alter step kinematics in runners with known asymmetries. Finally, meaningful alterations in high-speed running biomechanics can be achieved with only 300 g of shank loading.

In competitive street and park skateboarding, judges determine success based on an ‘overall impression’ of each skater's performance, guided by World Skate criteria. Despite different competition formats, the judging criteria for both street and park disciplines are the same, developed on the values, principles, and virtues held within the skateboarding community. Given skating's recent Olympic debut, understanding what specifically constitutes success would seem paramount for skaters to target progression in the sport. To assess if the skateboarding community understands and aligns on judging competitive success criteria, and train accordingly, 33 skaters of various skill levels and disciplines completed a 35-question online survey. Participants included elite (i.e., sponsored, n = 4), regional (New Zealand) amateur (n = 10), and recreational (n = 19) skaters. A mixed-methods, cross-sectional approach revealed that community perspectives on competitive and recreational performance generally aligned with World Skate judging criteria, emphasizing ‘flow’ and ‘style’. Competitive skaters appeared to adjust their training accordingly, however, views on the scale and order of importance of judging criteria vary by involvement, skill level, and discipline, suggesting that an overall impression of skateboarding performance is highly individualistic and ambiguous. This likely leaves coaches and athletes speculating about what constitutes a winning performance and compromises targeted training. The survey's findings, though limited in their scope, emphasize the need for clarity in subjective judging criteria and application. Future research should implement objective explorations of street and park competitive skateboarding performances, respectively.