Effect of Joint Position Sense on Shooting Accuracy Performance in Team Sports

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of joint position sense (JPS) on shooting accuracy in team games. JPS and accuracy tests were performed on 90 participants consisting of amateur and elite-level athletes and sedentaries. Participants were analyzed separately according to their gender and the sports branches they participated in. The elbow joint was analyzed in the chest pass test for basketball, the shoulder joint in the cuff pass test for volleyball, and the hip joint in the in-foot pass test for soccer. Pearson correlation analysis showed no significant relationship between JPS error and accuracy error. The two-way analysis of variance was performed to examine the effect of gender and sports variables on shooting accuracy error and JPS error variables. It was found that the gender variable did not have a significant effect on the shooting accuracy error, while the branch variable had a significant effect on the shooting accuracy error [F(2,84) = 12.82, p = .000, η2 = .234]. The effect of the gender variable on the position error was significant [F(1,84) = .22, p = .641, η2 = .003]. On the other hand, the effect of the branch variable on position error was insignificant. In this study, it was revealed that position error was not related to shooting performance. Shooting accuracy errors showed significant differences according to the branches. Position error showed significant differences according to gender. Accuracy error should be examined in terms of its relationship with other subcomponents of proprioception, such as force and movement speed.