Influence of Experience on Postural Control: Effect of Expertise in Gymnastics

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The authors investigated how expertise in motor skills that require fine postural control, such as gymnastics, influences postural regulation. Gymnasts and nongymnasts performed a postural stabilization task after anterior-posterior destabilization while looking at a target in front of them. The authors recorded and analyzed the center of pressure and the ankle, knee, and hip displacements. Gymnasts were able to react rapidly after destabilization to decrease their center of pressure and the angular movements. Moreover, they used their knees to stabilize posture, whereas the nongymnasts used their hips. These findings suggest that specific postural experience modifies the ability to coordinate and regulate posture. The authors discuss these results from an ecological perspective.

Multi-segmental postural coordination in professional ballet dancers

“…Enhanced stability might be a general feature of the advanced balance skill exhibited by dancers, as dancers have exhibited enhanced neuromuscular responses and proprioceptive sensitivity [1][2][3][4][5][6]. It is unclear whether greater postural coordination stability might be associated with speed of neuromuscular responses, but research does suggest these stability results could be related to enhanced proprioceptive sensitivity [16][17][18][19].…”

“…Studies that employed perturbations during static balance have reliably shown that experts exhibit faster postural responses resulting in greater overall stability [1,2,4]. These studies tell a more consistent story than those that employed quiet stance, yet an incomplete one.…”

“…Balance experts, such as dancers, demonstrate balance enhancements due, in part, to faster and more consistent neuromuscular responses and enhanced proprioceptive sensitivity [1][2][3][4][5][6]. The basis of this expertise may reside in the establishment of coordinative structures (groups of muscles and associated neural, vascular, skeletal, and connective tissues, linked to behave as single autonomous units, i.e., muscle synergies [7]) that are sufficiently stable to allow highly exact control of postural control, while appropriately flexible to accommodate novel movement contexts.…”

“…1 This task has been employed to study the ability of expert gymnasts to sustain an in-phase pattern of ankle-hip coordination during high target-frequency conditions associated with antiphase coordination [15]. The results indicated that gymnasts maintained the putatively more difficult in-phase pattern across a wider range of frequencies than untrained controls.…”

Efecto del entrenamiento sistemático de gimnasia rítmica sobre el control postural de niñas adolescentes

“…Corroborando esta idea varias investigaciones han demostrado que diferentes especialistas (bailarinas y practicantes de gimnasia artística) son significantemente más estables y menos dependientes de la visión que sujetos no entrenados [15][16][17] . Sin embargo, esta hipótesis no es plenamente aceptada, existiendo algunos trabajos donde no se demostró el efecto positivo que el entrenamiento pudiera tener sobre el control postural 18,19 . Además, la habilidad de gimnastas de élite para conseguir, de forma eficiente, posturas específicas de alta complejidad técnica no parece tener una transferencia positiva sobre la capacidad de mantener una adecuada postura erecta estática 20 .…”