A comparative study on static and dynamic balance in male collegiate soccer and basketball athletes

Abstract

Objective. Performance of athletes from different sports on balance tests is not well understood. Prescription of balance exercises to athletes in different sports may be an important to recognize performance variations. Thus current study was compared static and dynamic balance among soccer and basketball collegiate athletes.
Material and Method. A sample of 40 male volunteers from collegiate soccer and basketball athletes with mean age of 19.2±1.42years were participated in the current study. Subjects were divided into two respective groups of basketball and soccer (n =20). Study outcomes were assessed the static and dynamic balances by Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) and Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) respectively in both groups. Results. Results indicated that both basketball and soccer athletes had similar static balance measure on BESS irrespective of dominant or non-dominant extremity. SEBT comparisons revealed that statistically significant difference were found between two groups of athletes for dominant extremity in all the three reach directions.
Results indicated that increased reach distance of soccer athletes on SEBT showed better dynamic balance ability than basketball athletes. Conclusions. Basketball and soccer players did not differ in terms of static balance. In contrast, basketball players displayed inferior dynamic balance compared with soccer players. With this insight, athletic trainers may prescribe balance exercises more effectively to athletes from basketball and soccer players.

Key words:

proprioception, postural control, motor learning, attention

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