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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 30, 1985)
Walk-ons keep their ace in the hole See Page 2B Wednesday, January 30, 1985 Emerald Sports Supplement Are gymnastic routines safe? Student granted Fulbright for research Anyone who has seen women's Olym pic gymnastics has to be impressed with both the young ages of the competitors and the incredible difficulty of the moves. However, it is not without cost, says Victoria Panzer, a doctoral student in the University’s Biomechanics/Sports Medicine Laboratory. Panzer recently received an International Telephone and Telegraph corporation-sponsored Fulbright Scholarship to study injuries in elite gymnasts in Australia. Panzer, who has earned two masters’ degrees from Columbia University in educational administration and motor mechanics, has been at the University as a Graduate Teaching Fellow for the past year and a half working in the Biomechanics/Sports Medicine lab, which is known for its research in runn ing injuries and other related sports. Biomechanics is essentially the study of optimizing technique for preventing injuries related to physical activity, Panzer says. It was the research of Dr. Kenneth University doctoral student Victoria Panzer’s research of injuries in elite gym nasts has landed her a spot,at, the University of Western Australia in Perth. Singer, an orthopedic surgeon at the Eugene Orthopedic and Fracture Clinic, that interested Panzer in biomechanics. Singer became concerned about the unusual number of elbow disorders gym nasts were treated for at the clinic and began studying the cases for an explana tion. He found there was a correlation between a technique gymnasts used to execute a particular vault exercise and the elbow injuries he was treating. A former gymnast and coach herself, Panzer feels that she was naturally led into this field as a result of her interest in both sports medicine and gymnastics. The issue of performance and safety is becoming increasingly important in gymnstics. Panzer feels that when Olga Korbut arrived on the scene, the Soviet three-time gold medal winner in the 1972 Olympic Games presented some new issues for both gymnasts and coaches. Korbut’s introduction of difficult and potentially dangerous moves resulted in an increase in the number of risky moves required during gymnastic routines, Panzer says. She further notes that the young girl from Russia also added a new dimension to the sport — competitors were becoming increasingly younger. Panzer says that many of the difficult moves now popular in gymnastics re quire great strength which puts lots of stress on the underdeveloped systems of the young gymnasts. “The research I’ll be doing is especial ly important because the average age of gymnasts is going down. We have the chance to protect a lot of young peo ple,” Panzer says. “There is always going to be some in herent risk,” she adds,“but the question is when does this risk become a danger?” It is this question that Panzer hopes to help answer in Australia this September when she begins her Fulbright studies. Her research will begin at the Univer sity of Western Australia in Perth, where she will program research data into com puters. She will then go to the Na tional Institute of Sport in Canberra to actually do the research. Panzer will research under Dr. Bruce Mason, head of biomechanics at NIS. Mason is a former doctoral student of Dr. Barry Bates, one of the key resear chers in the University’s biomechanics lab. Mason came to the Olympic Scientific Congress, hosted in Eugene last summer, ( and presented the preventative research being done at the institute and what they ( hope to accomplish in the future. Panzer j attended the presentation and decided to ^ apply for a Fulbright scholorship to j study in Australia. It would seem that some research would have been done in gymnastics prior to this, but this is not the case, ] Panzer says. 1 “There are studies done on football players and such, but not on gymnasts. There is lots of difference between an 18-year-old guy and a 13-year-old girl.” Panzer says gymnastics is becoming a strength sport, which it wasn’t in there cent past. Girls are working out with weights, but are they ready for it? “Even though the muscles are strong, that doesn’t mean that the underlying structures are,” she adds. Recent interest in gymnastics research tias been inspired in part by a new awareness in coaches of the potential in iuries involved without proper techni que and training. Dick Mulvihill, director of the Oregon Academy of Artistic Gymnastics in Eugene, says that new skills are being developed so fast that the coaches don’t have have a chance to research the damage these moves can do. “You just don’t know,” he says. “We are working in a physiological vacuum, rhere is scanty information on gymnastics.” Unlike Panzer though, Mulvihill does not blame the increased risk factor on Korbut; he blames it, in part, on the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo. “That was really a revolution in risk,” he says. “The apparatus became better, and the sport became more popular.” Panzer has worked with the Oregon academy and is impressed with their at titude. They test each new move as it comes up, and have an orthopedic doc tor look at it to evaluate its safety and potential danger. Coaches are beginning to look more closely at their athletes and injuries, Panzer says. The investment of training a gymnast for six years makes a bit of prevention worth the cost if it keeps her lealthy for competition. “The national directors in Australia aw this,” Panzer says. “They saw that ,rou can invest lots of time in an athlete md then blow it with an injury.” Panzer says she was overwhelmed vhen she learned of that her Fulbright vas accepted. “It was a big shock.” Bates, under whom she studies at the Jniversity, is excited for Panzer and en hused about her research. “Getting this award is a prime example of intense initiative and r motivation,” he says. That’s what it takes to get a Fulbright he adds, along with a lit tle bit of luck. “There are a lot of people with good proposals that don’t make it. It takes being in the right place at the right time,” he says. Bates is hopeful that such work with top level athletes will trickle lown to the novice and intermediate gymnasts. Ordinarily, Bates would have reserva ions about sending a student abroad to vork under someone else. He says that if he work the student does under the ■ulbright is not a success, ultimately the ailure is his responsibility. But he says le is not worried about Panzer’s success mder Mason’s supervision. “He’s probably the best student I ever lad. I have no problems releasing Vic oria into his care.” Story by Ken Armstrong Photo by Michael Clapp AS
