Comparison of the Postural Control Performance of Collegiate Basketball Players and Nonathletes

Abstract

Athletes who play basketball are at risk for ankle injuries. Whether athletes demonstrate different postural stability and limb asymmetry during a quiet standing task compared with nonathletes is unknown. Fifteen collegiate basketball players and 15 nonathletes performed 3 trials of bipedal quiet standing for 30 s with 60 s of rest. Postural stability measures were obtained for each limb: integration of the resultant of the center of pressure (COP) speed (anteroposterior [AP] and mediolateral [ML] directions); COP area; and frequency (AP and ML). An asymmetry index between lower limbs was calculated for COP speed (AP and ML), COP area, and weight distribution. Basketball players demonstrated less COP speed (ML) (P = .039), decreased levels of asymmetry for COP speed (P = .033), and reduced COP area (P = .005) and COP speed in the ML direction, compared with nonathletes. Whether this reduction influences incidence of ankle sprains requires further investigation. Different sports require different postural control strategies and predispose athletes to certain types of injuries. Postural control seems to be affected by an athlete’s level of activity and the type of sport played.1,2 It has been reported that ankle sprain injuries are more prevalent in basketball players.3-6 The incidence of ankle sprains is high among athletes who play basketball,7 and ankle sprains are the most common injury in collegiate men’s basketball.8 However, controversy exists as to whether experienced players demonstrate different postural control strategies (eyes open or closed and singleor double-leg stance) compared with inexperienced players or healthy individuals. Previous studies have demonstrated that athletes control their balance during standing better than inexperienced athletes,1,9-14 whereas other studies did not reveal differences in balance between experienced and inexperienced athletes.15,16 Athletic tasks performed during basketball place a high demand on stability. For example, maintaining an in-bound possession, passing, shooting, and dribbling on flat and stiff surfaces without traveling require versatile control of balance. Therefore, it is natural to think that basketball players present with better postural control than nonathletes. However, athletic training may result in the development of aberrant neuromuscular control patterns according to the postural challenges imposed during repetitive athletic maneuvers. These repetitive neuromuscular patterns may initiate an imbalance of the forces acting to stabilize the joints during standing and may lead to alterations of athletes’ postural strategies. Favored postural tendencies that result in potential imbalances, such as asymmetries between the lower limbs and postural sway deficits, may predispose athletes to injury and cause a decrease in performance.5,17-22 Whether increased postural stability is developed with experience and time playing the sport or whether experience leads to asymmetrical control patterns that might prejudice postural control, particularly for basDr Marchetti is from Faculty of Physical Education (YMCA) and Methodist University of Piracicaba (UNIMEP), Piracicaba, and Dr Duarte is from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Federal University of ABC, Santo Andre, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Dr Hartigan is from the Department of Physical Therapy, University of New England, Portland, Maine. Received: January 21, 2011 Accepted: April 18, 2012 Posted Online: October 5, 2012 This work was supported by a Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo/Brazil grant to Dr Duarte (08/10461-7). The authors have no financial or proprietary interest in the materials presented