Abstract
Whilst the importance of trunk, lower and upper extremities for the efficiency of maintaining body sway is well documented, the effects of cervical spine function have been seldom investigated. Afferent information from high density proprioceptors located in the cervical spine can alter postural balance, however the effects of sport’s specific habitual adaptation on balance performance have not yet been investigated. Twenty-seven taekwondo fighters and thirty controls performed unilateral balance tasks while facing forward and during neck torsion balance test while standing on the force plate. Neck kinesthesia was measured with the Head-to-Neutral Relocation test and the Butterfly test with motion-inertial unit. Differences between balance tasks were analyzed using two-way ANOVA. Additionally, correlations between body sway parameters and neck kinesthesia were studied using Pearson correlation coefficient. No differences were found between forward facing and neck torsion balance tasks in taekwondo fighters. However, correlations were found between balance on the non-preferred leg and neck kinesthesia. On the contrary, healthy individuals presented with statistically significant differences between both balance tasks and correlations between balance and neck kinesthesia. Taekwondo fighters seem to present with habitual adaptations in balance control, that differ from non-trained individuals.
Highlights
Taekwondo fighters require sufficient postural stability to better maintain tactical superiority over an opponent [1]
Taekwondo fighters seem to present with habitual adaptations in balance control, that differ from non-trained individuals
The main goal of our study was to investigate whether neck kinesthetic functions corelate to balance performance in different stances and whether balance deficits are more pronounced in guard-specific posture
Summary
Taekwondo fighters require sufficient postural stability to better maintain tactical superiority over an opponent [1]. Taekwondo-specific movements during a fight require them to adapt a guard-specific posture which involves slight trunk rotation with increased neck torsion towards the opponent. The aforementioned posture requires them to frequently use one leg as “standing” leg, while the other one as “kicking” leg, commonly referred to as preferred and non-preferred leg [3]. This could cause important asymmetries in unilateral stances and could be even more pronounced in guard-specific posture with the neck rotated towards the opponent. Asymmetries in unilateral stances caused by changes in different neuromuscular functions could be accompanied by important adaptations in proprioceptive system [4] with afferent input causing additional alterations in efferent drive to the peripheral effectors. While efferent input adjusts for final motor responses, preprograming of movement is dependent on the variety of sensory sources
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