Effects of proprioceptive training on explosive strenght, aglility and coordination of young rhythmic gymnasts

Abstract

e aim of this study was to examine the innuence of proprioceptive training on explosive strength, agility and coordination in young rhythmic gymnasts. e study was conducted on a sample of 74 healthy girls, aged 7 to 9 years of age who train rhythmic gymnastics. e whole sample was divided into two groups: experimental (43 girls) and control (31 girls). e experimental group had the proprioception training before their regular trainings for 12 weeks (24 trainings), while the control group had only rhythmic gymnastics trainings. EEects of proprioceptive trainings on the examined motor abilities were estimated by two explosive strength tests, three coordination tests and two agility tests. All respondents were tested before the application of the experimental treatment (pre-test) and aaer its completion (post-test). To examine diierences in the achieved results between the initial and nal measurement for each group, t-test for dependent samples was used. To determine diierences between groups at the initial and nal measurement, t-test for independent samples was used. By comparing results from the initial and nal measurement, improvement in all tests for the observed abilities was perceived in the experimental group, while improvement in coordination tests and one agility test was noticed in the control group. Testing diierences in results between groups in the nal measurement showed that there are diiered only in agility tests, and in favour of the experimental group. Based on the obtained results, the conclusion was that the application of proprioceptive training in rhythmic gymnasts can contribute to improvement of agility, while in other observed abilities we cannot conclusively claim that improvement was the direct product of proprioceptive training.