Balance control, agility, eye–hand coordination, and sport performance of amateur badminton players: A cross-sectional study

• Published in: Medicine (Baltimore) Vol. 98; no. 2; p. e14134
• Main Authors: Wong, Towel K.K., Ma, Ada W.W., Liu, Karen P.Y., Chung, Louisa M.Y., Bae, Young-Hyeon, Fong, Shirley S.M., Ganesan, Balasankar, Wang, Hsing-Kuo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc 01-01-2019; Wolters Kluwer Health
• Subjects: Adult; Athletic Performance - physiology; Case-Control Studies; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Healthy Volunteers; Humans; Male; Movement - physiology; Observational Study; Postural Balance - physiology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Racquet Sports - physiology
• ISSN: 0025-7974; 1536-5964
• DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000014134

In this study, balance performance, agility, eye-hand coordination, and sports performance were compared between amateur badminton players and active controls.Thirty young adult badminton players and 33 active controls participated in the study. Static single-leg standing balance (with eyes closed) was measured using a force platform, and dynamic balance was measured using the Y Balance Test (lower quarter). Agility was measured using a hexagon agility test, and eye-hand coordination was measured using a computerized finger-pointing task. Sports performance was quantified by the number of times a shuttlecock fell in a designated area following a badminton serve.The badminton players had superior accuracy in badminton serving (P < .001) relative to the active controls. However, no significant between-group differences were noted in all other outcome variables (P > .05).Amateur badminton players had more favorable sports performance, but not balance performance, agility, or eye-hand coordination, than controls.