Postural stability of canoeing and kayaking young male athletes during quiet stance

Abstract

We studied the postural stability of 23 canoeing and kayaking young athletes and 15 healthy untrained age matched subjects during quiet and sensory conflicted stance (standing on stable and foam support with open and closed eyes). We measured with a force platform the center of pressure excursions and applied mean sway amplitude (MA), mean sway velocity (SV) and their Romberg ratios, and sway dispersion index to evaluate standing balance. During standing with eyes open, the athletes in comparison to non-athletes showed in sagittal and frontal plane greater MA and SV when the support was stable and smaller MA and SV when it was unstable. During standing with eyes closed, there were no differences between groups when the support was stable, however, the athletes sway faster and have smaller MA than controls while standing on the foam support. During standing on stable support, Romberg ratios for MA and SV revealed that unlike non-athletes the athletes' MA and SV were vision independent. However, while standing on unstable support the athletes' MA and SV became vision dependent and even greater for the medio-lateral sway. Canoeists' SV vision dependency in both planes was greater than for other groups. These results are in line with our hypothesis that young kayaking and canoeing athletes have a different from non-athletes model of sensory integration due to their specific sporting activity. One possible mechanism of this model may be a subtle re-adaptation deficit after disembarking to stable ground with diminished sensitivity of vision and vestibular apparatus.

Investigating postural equilibrium of individuals with different athletic skill levels

“…This is likely contributed by their training routines, which involve sensing the changing relations of the moving body and coordinating body musculature to maintain body balance. Individuals with active lifestyle, especially athletes were documented to have good body balance too [13]- [15]. Athletes exhibit smaller sway amplitude and sway velocity than non-athlete individuals.…”

“…Several studies also shown that postural stability in some sports e.g. soccer players, professional dancers, gymnasts and surfers, have strong visual dependence [15].…”

“…In [1], subjects were instructed to stand on a stable force plate with eyes open (EO) and eyes closed (EC). In [3] and [15], subjects were instructed to stand upright on a platform with stable surface and foam pad with EO and EC. To further challenge human balance control, use of dynamic platform was proposed in [16]- [17].…”

The Progress of Biomechanical Researches in Kayaking

“…The most related literature is a paper about postural stability of canoeing and kayaking young male athletes during quiet stance, pointed that affected by different sport character, the canoeing and kayaking athletes show different postural stability. Thus far there is no research about kayaking stability training being reported [52].…”

The Influence of Kayaking and Rowing Sports Experience on Postural Response to Optic Flow

“…None of the previous studies have investigated the coupling of postural sway to optic fl ow in sports expertise. Most of the studies have focused on identifying postural sway in a stable stance ( Aalto, Pyykkö, Ilmarinen, Kähkönen, & Starck, 1990 ;Golomer, et al ., 1999 ;Perrin, et al ., 2002 ;Schmit, Regis, & Riley, 2005 ) or postural characteristics by manipulating task constraints ( Mouchnino, et al ., 1992 ;Hugel, et al ., 1999 ;Vuillerme, Danion, et al ., 2001 ;Vuillerme & Nougier, 2004 ;Gautier, Thouvarecq, & Larue, 2008 ;Matsuda, et al ., 2008 ;Stambolieva, et al ., 2012 ). There has been only one study of postural adaptation to imposed optic fl ow in experienced gymnasts ( Gautier, Thouvarecq, & Vuillerme, 2008 ).…”