Does Protective Wear Affect Proprioception And Speed Performance In American Football Players?

Abstract

PURPOSE The players in American Football usually wear head and face protective, shoulder pad, chest protective and something like these protective wear because they often meet to direct stroke, crash and falling down. It was considered that protective sport wear in American Football has about 6kg weight would be effective on speed and balance performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the protective sport wear affect proprioception and speed performance in American Football or not. METHODS Twenty-eight healthy basis players (15 backs and 13 lineman players) who play in Bilkent University Team of American Football participated to this study. Balance performance which is the most important element of “one-leg static balance” and “two-leg dynamic balance” with the Kinesthetic Ability Trainer (KAT 2000) and speed performance with 30 m sprint and 11 m slalom run were evaluated. The tests were done with and without protective sports wear. RESULTS There were no any differences on balance tests between back and the lineman players (p>0.05) and also between with and without protective sport wear (p>005). It was seen that right static balance and 10 m slalom run tests were well done when wearing protective sport clothes. Athlete's balance was on the right foot and back in the right static balance and on the left foot and back in the left static balance that's why it was found that the sports wear was not change this direction. By observations the person's dynamic balance on his both foot was slide in front and right but after wearing back and front balance was equaled by displaced from right to left (p<0.05). There was a significant difference between with and without clothes on 10m slalom run test (p<0.05), although there was not a statistically significant difference between with and without wear on sprint running test (p>0.05). There was a negative correlation with height only in left static balance test. In addition a significant correlation was found between the weight and the both of speed tests. CONCLUSION Our results show the heavy protective sports clothes did not affect the static and dynamic balance tests and both speed tests.