Abstract

In many sports disciplines and particularly artistic gymnastics certain doubts and problems arise as to the coherent selection of a manual or podal body segment to perform the functions of a support or iinpulsion segment for the movement where either strength or dexterity and precision are required. The execution of a gym- nastic element in inverted positions using alternatively as axis one or the other arm has been the point of departure for this paper.
In this experimental intergroupal study we worked with 29 subjects, from a total of 42 initial subjects, all of them physical education students with ages ranging from 18 to 20 years old. They were submitted to various lateral dominance and manual and podal dynamo metrical tests. The results obtained in the lateral dominance tests were registered using two qualitative variables (right handed and left handed). These had to be transformed later into quantitative variables, with a value range from 0-100, for statistical treatment. The total grouped values for the manual and podal lateral dominance tests gave as a result 5 levels qf lateral dominance: high left-handedness, medium left-handedness, undefined, medium right-handedness, high right-handedness.
The data for all subjects gathered in the manual and podal dynamo metrical tests were also distributed in 5 levels —number one standing for the lowest strength level and number five for the highest—for statistical treatment.
The results obtained in these tests show that a greater degree of lateral dominance does not justify the attribution of strength functions to the manual and podal segments corresponding to the left side limbs and ability functions to the right side limbs.
On the other hand as a .final conclusion we might say that our results indicate a certain tendency with high degrees of right-handedness, for the subject to have more strength in the right side limb compared to the left side one.