Balance improvements in female high school basketball players after a 6-week neuromuscular-training program

Poor balance has been associated with increased injury risk among athletes. Neuromuscular-training programs have been advocated as a means of injury prevention, but little is known about the benefits of these programs on balance in high school athletes. To determine whether there are balance gains a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of sport rehabilitation 2009-11, Vol.18 (4), p.465-481
Main Authors: McLeod, Tamara C Valovich, Armstrong, Travis, Miller, Mathew, Sauers, Jamie L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Analysis of Variance
Athletic Injuries - prevention & control
Balance
Basketball - physiology
Exercise - physiology
Exercise Test
Female
High school basketball
Humans
Motor Skills
Multivariate Analysis
Muscle, Skeletal - physiology
Nervous System Physiological Phenomena
Postural Balance
Proprioception
Schools
Single-Blind Method
Sports injuries
Training
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Summary:Poor balance has been associated with increased injury risk among athletes. Neuromuscular-training programs have been advocated as a means of injury prevention, but little is known about the benefits of these programs on balance in high school athletes. To determine whether there are balance gains after participation in a neuromuscular-training program in high school athletes. Nonrandomized controlled trial. All data were collected at each participating high school before and after a 6-wk intervention or control period. 62 female high school basketball players recruited from the local high school community and assigned to a training (n = 37) or control (n = 25) group. Training-group subjects participated in a 6-wk neuromuscular-training program that included plyometric, functional-strengthening, balance, and stability-ball exercises. Data were collected for the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) and Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) before and after the 6-wk intervention or control period. The authors found a significant decrease in total BESS errors in the trained group at the posttest compared with their pretest and the control group (P = .003). Trained subjects also scored significantly fewer BESS errors on the single-foam and tandem-foam conditions at the posttest than the control group and demonstrated improvements on the single-foam compared with their pretest (P = .033). The authors found improvements in reach in the lateral, anteromedial, medial, and posterior directions in the trained group at the posttest compared with the control group (P < .05) using the SEBT. The study demonstrates that a neuromuscular-training program can increase the balance and proprioceptive capabilities of female high school basketball players and that clinical balance measures are sensitive to detect these differences.
ISSN:1056-6716
1543-3072
DOI:10.1123/jsr.18.4.465