Biathletes present repeating patterns of postural control to maintain their balance while shooting

Abstract

Balance can be a main factor contributing to success in many disciplines, and biathlon is a representative example. A more stable posture may be a key factor for shooting scores. The center of foot pressure (COP) is commonly recorded when evaluating postural control. As COP measurements are highly irregular and non-stationary, non-linear deterministic methods, such as entropy, are more appropriate for the analysis of COP displacement. The aim of our study was to investigate whether the longitudinal effects of biathlon training can elicit specific changes in postural control. Eight national-level biathletes, 15 non-athletes who prior to the experiment took part in 3 months of shooting training, and 15 non-athletes with no prior rifle shooting experience took part in our study. The data was collected with the use of a force plate. Participants performed three balance tasks in quiet standing, the shooting position (internal focus–participants concentrated on maintaining the correct body position and rifle), and aiming at the target (external focus–participants concentrated on keeping the laser beam centered on the targets). Biathletes obtained significantly lower values of sample entropy compared to the other groups during the shooting and aiming at the target trials (p<0.05). External and internal focuses influenced the process of postural control among participants who had prior rifle shooting experience and the control group; they obtained significantly higher values of sample entropy while shooting and aiming at the target compared to the quiet standing trial (p<0.05). The biathletes obtained significantly lower values of sample entropy in the aiming at the target position compared to the quiet standing trial. Specific balance training is associated with the ability to deal with a more challenging, non-specific task. The biathletes seemed to employ a different motor control strategy than the beginners and control group, creating repeating patterns (more regular signal for COP) to keep one’s balance during the shooting and aiming at the target positions.

Sport-specific training induced adaptations in postural control and their relationship with athletic performance

“…biathlon ( Niinimaa and McAvoy, 1983 ; Larue et al, 1989 ; Ihalainen et al, 2018 ; Michalska et al, 2022 );…”

“…National- and junior-team biathletes differ only in the percentage of hits during resting shots and postural stability on the left leg in shooting direction during competition shots, but intensive exercise affects these technical components in both groups of shooters ( Ihalainen et al, 2018 ). Different motor control strategy is used in experienced biathletes, beginners and controls, characterized by better postural stability during aiming at the target and shooting ( Michalska et al, 2022 ). Body sway is significantly smaller in the position shooters than in those with less than four months of training ( Niinimaa and McAvoy, 1983 ).…”

Relationship between Accuracy, Speed, and Consistency in a Modern Pentathlon Shooting Event

“…It is judged that this information can be presented as a limited time to improve accuracy and consistency along with shot speed during laser run training. In conclusion, because the modern pentathlon judges whether the final exists by adding up the scores of the five events, athletes are affected by all other sports to advance to the final [20]. However, in this study, the preliminaries and finals of the laser run showed significant differences in shot speed, accuracy, and consistency, highlighting that these three characteristics are one of the factors contributing to the final participation in the laser run.…”

“…The relationship between accuracy and consistency has been proposed as an important contributing factor to improved performance when exercising [19]. Biathlon athletes show repetitive posture control patterns for consistent shooting [20]. It has been shown that elite pentathletes display better performance during better shooting accuracy [3].…”

Rifle and aiming point accelerations do not differ between the most and least accurate shots in biathlon shooting within an athlete

“…When compared to their younger counterparts, national top-level biathletes have demonstrated better shooting performance [5,20], postural balance [5] and stability of hold [20]. A recent study also showed that during an aiming task, biathletes employ more regular and repetitive postural control patterns compared to subjects with three months or no experience in shooting [13]. Notably, only a slight difference was observed between the subjects with three months of shooting training compared to those with no shooting experience at all [13].…”