The effects of 8 week balance training on soccer-specific technical abilities and biomechanical analysis in soccer players

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of functional balance exercies applied for eight weeks on the performance of soccer technical abilities such as dribbling, instep kicking, passing and kinematic parameters in soccer players. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted 24 male soccer players playing in Turkish Football Federation (TFF), 1st Amateur Division. Players are randomly assigned as intervention group (n=12) and control group (n=12). Balance ability of the both groups has been measured before 8 week soccer specific balance training under laboratory condition, by standing on a force platform during 30 seconds. Besides, Maximum Voluntary Contraction (MVC) values of six different lower extremity muscles have been recorded by using Electromyography (EMG). For the evaluation of football-specific technical skills; passing, shooting and dribbling tests was performed under real field conditions. Lastly, all the technical skill tests have been recorded and subsequently analyzed in order to define biomechanical components of the support leg. Results: There was a significant difference between pre and post tests for the balance ability in the intervention group. Besides, there was also a statistically significant difference for football-specific technical skills; passing (p=0,001, shooting p=0,003 and dribbling p=0,024 skills between pre and post tests in the intervention group. Conclusion: As a result of eight weeks of functional balance training, the training group passing, kicking and dribbling performance improvement was observed however there were no difference was found in the control group passing, kicking and dribbling variables. Key words: Balance Training, Biomechanics, Electromyography, Soccer, Postural Control, Technical Ability