TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Balance abilities of junior ice hockey players
JO  - Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness
A1  - Ondra, Lukas
A1  - Svoboda, Zdenek
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - BACKGROUND: Postural control is required during various fast-paced and offensive ice hockey actions, and therefore seems to be an important component in ice hockey performance.     METHODS: Data were collected from two ice hockey teams with differing performance levels. The higher-performance team consisted of 26 players (with ages of 16.3 ± 0.9 y, heights of 178.26 ± 6.71 cm, and weights of 74.3 ± 9.6 kg). The lower-performance team consisted of 19 players (with ages of 16.2 ± 1.8 y, heights of 176.11 ± 9.81 cm, and weights of 68.7 ± 13.9 kg). Each participant performed six unilateral stances under static conditions on a balance pad placed on a force platform, and five bilateral stances under dynamic conditions using a wobble board placed on the force platform.     RESULTS: The higher-level players performed better in the unilateral static stance task in both the anterior-posterior direction and the medial-lateral direction (with a p-value of p <0.001), and total velocity (p = 0.001). The higher-level players also performed better in both the anterior-posterior and medial-lateral directions, and total velocity (with p-value of p <0.001), in the bilateral dynamic stance task and therefore performed significantly better than the lower-level players.     CONCLUSIONS: Hockey players who possess a highly developed postural control strategy have a superior ability to compensate for unexpected postural disturbances and collisions, and thus possess a strong competitive advantage. Therefore, testing the balance abilities of hockey players under static and dynamic conditions may be useful for evaluating their competitive performance levels.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0022-4707
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.23736/S0022-4707.20.11057-0
ID  - ref1
ER  -