The effect of joint position sense on shooting accuracy rate

Purpose: The relationship between joint position sense (JPS) and pass/shoot accuracy has never been investigated before. This study aimed to examine the effect of joint position sense on shooting accuracy in team games. Materials and Methods: JPS and accuracy error tests were performed on 90 participants (55 males and 35 females) consisting of amateur and elite-level athletes and sedentary. Participants were analyzed separately according to their gender and the test branches they participated in. The elbow joint in the chest pass test for basketball, the shoulder joint in the cuff test for volleyball, and the hip joint in the in-foot pass test for soccer were analyzed. Results: Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was no significant relationship between joint position error and accuracy error. In the two-way analysis of variance to examine the effect of gender and branch variables on the accuracy error variable, it was found that the gender variable did not have a significant effect on the accuracy error, while the branch variable had a significant effect on the accuracy error [F(2,84) = 12.82, p = .000, η2 = .234]. In the two-way analysis of variance conducted to examine the effect of gender and branch variables on the position error variable, the effect of the gender variable on position error was found to be significant [F(1,84) = .22, p = .641, η2 = .003]. On the other hand, the effect of the branch variable on the position error was insignificant. Conclusion: This study revealed that position error was not related to hitting accuracy error. Accuracy error should be examined in terms of its relationship with other subcomponents of proprioception, such as force and movement speed. Keywords: Joint position sense, hitting accuracy, team games