Sian Barris

Sian Barris started skating in Tokoroa when she was 5 years of age and attended her first National Championships when she was just 7 years old. From age 13, Sian represented NZ several times and in 2000, went to the World Championships in Massachusetts, USA.

Sian continued skating throughout high school and with these accolades under her belt decided to make the shift down to Otago so she could attend the School of Physical Education.
After two years at PhysEd, Sian was accepted into the Honours programme and it seemed a natural progression that she should focus on skating as part of her research.

“My honours project compared landing strategies between pre and post pubescent elite roller skaters. I was interested in biomechanics after taking PHSE 202 and decided to do a project looking at potential injury mechanisms in roller skating because it was a something I knew a lot about.

As an athlete and a coach I knew that skaters of different ages landed from jumps differently, but I couldn’t measure it and I didn’t know what influence this may have on the large number of knee injuries common in female figure skaters. I used SIMI motion analysis to measure the hip, knee and ankle joint angles of both groups of female figure skaters, comparing their landing mechanisms and looking for potential causes of injury.”