The effects of balance training on balance ability in handball players

Asimenia Gioftsidou,Polina Sofokleous,Paraskevi Malliou,George Godolias,Anastasia Beneka,George Pafis

doi:10.5937/exquli1202015g

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate, the effectiveness of a balance training program in male professional handball players. Thirty professional handball players were randomly divided into experimental and control group. The experimental group (N=15), additional to the training program, followed an intervention balance program for 12 weeks. All subjects performed a static balance test (deviations from the horizontal plane). The results revealed that the 12-week balance training program improved (p<0.01) all balance performance indicators in the experimental group. Thus, a balance training program can increase balance ability of handball players, and could used as a prevent tool for lower limbs muscular skeletal injuries.

Highlights

Handball is one of the most popular European team sports along with soccer, basketball and volleyball (Petersen et al, 2005)
No difference (p>0.05) in balance ability was found in the control group between baseline testing and re-testing
The present study showed that the balance program improved effectively the balance ability for both legs in the experimental group

Summary

Introduction

Handball is one of the most popular European team sports along with soccer, basketball and volleyball (Petersen et al, 2005). The jumping and pivoting activities contained in team sports have been described as injury risk factors by many authors proposing prevention strategies based on improving athletes balance ability (Caraffa et al, 1996; Hewett 2001; Junge 2002). Dynamic balance is supported to be more challenging because it requires the ability to maintain equilibrium during a transition from a dynamic to a static state (Ross and Guskiewicz, 2004) Both static and dynamic balance require integration of visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive inputs to produce an efferent response to control the body within its base of support (Irrgang et al, 1994; Guskiewicz and Perrin, 1996)

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