EFFECT OF BALLET-EXPERIENCE OF 12-YEAR-OLD FEMALE CHILDREN ON THE LEARNING OF DYNAMIC BALANCE CONTROL

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether previous regular experience in ballet enhance the learning balance task on the balance testing board. Eighteen healthy female children aged twelve including eight with more than three years ballet-experience and eight without the ballet-experience participated. Dynamic balance learning consisting of 3 sessions, which were pre-training and post-training with practices, and retention with no practice, were performed on the balance testing board. The interval between each session was one week. The stability was measured while the subject performed balance task on the same balance testing board placed on an AMTI force platform. The stability was defined as the sum of center of pressure (COP) and center of body mass (COM) mono directional displacements; and the variance of the end tip of the balance board displacement in vertical direction. Two way ANOVA for repeated-measures (2 groups 3 sessions) revealed statistically significant increases in postural stability for the test immediately following training and the retention test in both groups. Although interaction effect indicated greater improvement in non-experienced group, the stability of the group with experience in ballet far exceeded that of the group without experience, about all the variables of each session. Our results suggest that experience in ballet up to being twelve year old have positive influence on the learning dynamic balance control task.