Date of Award

8-2004

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Human Performance and Health Education

Department

Health, Physical Education & Recreation

First Advisor

Dr. Michael G. Miller

Second Advisor

Dr. Donna M. Ritenour

Third Advisor

Dr. Ricard

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Plyometrics are used by athletes of all to increase strength, power, and speed and often used during rehabilitation programs both on land and in water. Previous research suggested that aquatic plyometrics may have an affect on balance, however there is no data to support this claim. The purpose of this study was to compare aquatic to land plyometrics and the effects on balance. Thirty-six healthy subjects (17 males, 19 females) were randomly assigned to one of three groups, control, land, or aquatic. Plyometric training took place twice a week for seven weeks. Each subject performed three trials of static (single leg stance) and dynamic (standing on a dyna disc™) balance tests on a Kistler force plate pre and post-training. Ground reaction forces (GRF) were sampled at 100Hz for 10 s for each balance trail. Center of pressure (COP) was calculated from GRF. Three trial averages of the following dependent variables were calculated from COP: radial area, x range, y range, xy area, distance, mean Vx, mean Vy, mean X frequency, mean Y frequency. A 3 X 2 factorial repeated measures ANOVA was used to identify differences in the three trial averages of each dependent variable by training group and time. No significant interactions between training groups and time were found suggesting that plyometric training did not effect the measures of static and dynamic balance used in this study.

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