Single-leg Standing Ability and Lower Limb Movement Analysis of Collegiate Footballers and Sedentary Students

Abstract

Stability or balance is an integral component to perform daily activities without incurring injury or to be dependent on others. Sportsmen tend to have better balance than non-sports people but less is known about the single-leg balance ability. Furthermore, few studies analyzed the dynamic phase of single-leg stance that may contribute to better overall balance. Sports like football tend to have instances where the player's non-dominant leg keeps them in an upright position while the dominant leg kicks, passes and stops the ball. We aim to study the single-leg balance between collegiate footballers and sedentary students in eyes-closed (EC) and eyes-opened (EO) conditions and their contributing components to keep a body in an up-right position. Twenty collegiate footballers and 20 sedentary students conducted the unipedal stance test (UPST) on each leg with EO and EC conditions while standing on a force platform. We captured center of pressure (CoP) distance travelled, stance duration and using a 3D motion capture system, we assessed lower limb movement at six different anatomical sites. Results showed that footballers had better overall balance compared to sedentary students only in the non-dominant leg, EC condition with 12 footballers versus four sedentary students completing the full 45s stance (p=0.01) The other three UPST conditions did not show significant differences between groups. The CoP distance in the initial dynamic state and total UPST were both significantly shorter in footballers than sedentary students (p<0.05) during the nondominant leg, EC stance. Our multivariable linear regression model significantly predicted time for UPST on non-dominant leg with EC up to 76.8% (p<0.001) with the first 5-s of greater trochanter movement significantly contributing to total time taken for UPST in footballers. Overall, playing football may enhance balance control intrinsically especially for the non-dominant side while being less reliant on visual input to maintain balance.