The Interaction of Foot and Arm Position on Single Leg Balance When Swinging the Non-Support Leg

• Published in: Journal of sport & exercise psychology 2000-06, Vol.22
• Main Authors: Higgins, J, Higgins, S, Bennett, B, Ozawa, H, Patel, N, Droege, J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0895-2779

This experiment investigates the properties of postural control during a complex balance task. Previous work (Guan, et al, 1998) has shown that balance control is directly related to task conditions demonstrating specific invariant task related characteristics. Foot and arm positions often vary from task to task. This is a preliminary investigation looking at the interaction of foot and arm position while balancing on a single leg and swinging the non-support leg. A within subject design with repeated measures on all factors was used to study participants balance control using an AMTI force plate. Each participant supported herself on the edge of the force plate while: (a) the left leg was positioned in a foot-out or foot straight position; (b) arms rested at the side, held laterally to the side, or held in front of the body elbows slightly flexed; and (c) swinging the non-support leg in the anterior/posterior direction. Data were collected for a period of 20 seconds with a sampling frequency of 100 Hz. Similar to our earlier investigation analysis revealed that the selected measures COP characteristics were found to be task specific. Overall the foot out position appears to be the more stable position for all positions of the arms. Arms out to the side appears to produce the greater stability across foot positions. Balance in this study appears to be a dynamic process involving both task dependent and task invariant characteristics.