Background and Aim : Athletes from different sport fields are needed to lower extremity dynamic balance for their specific skills. The question can be raised is whether athletes from different sport fields are different in lower extremity dynamic balance? The aim of this study was to compare the dynamic balance of lower extremity of football, handball and taekwondo athletes with functional tests.

Material and Methods : Ten football, 10 handball, and 10 taekwondo healthy male athletes with the mean age of 23.83±0.06 years participated voluntarily in this study . The lower extremity dynamic balance was assessed by Shuttle Run test (SR), figure of 8 Hop test (FEH), Side to Side Hop test(SSH) and Agility Hop test (AH). All analyses were conducted using SPSS version 19.

Results : The scores of SR, FEH and AH tests were higher in taekwondo players compared to football and handball players (7.11± 0.26, 9.86±1.09 and 9.2 ±1.31, respectively). Football players gained the highest score in SSH test (7.52±0.84). The FEH test score in handball players was higher than football players (9.59±0.94). Statistical analysis showed significant differences between three groups on two tests (SR P=0/03 and AH P=0/01).

Conclusion : This study showed that lower extremity function of athletes from different fields of sport may be different. It seems that football and handball players need more agility and speed than taekwondo players for doing their own skills. This issue should be considered in designing the sport specific training protocol for athletes.

Key words : Functional test, Football, Handball, Taekwondo

Background and Aim: Proprioception is a component of somatosensory system. One of the most important somatosensory receptors is muscle spindles. Neck area with high density of muscle spindle, plays a significant role in providing this sense. With repeated contact sports, with high trauma on head and neck region, it is likely that proprioception will be impaired. The present study was conducted to compare proprioception between wrestlers, taekwondo players and non-athlete subjects to determine the effect of trauma on proprioception of craniocervical region.

Material and Methods: This study was a case-control study of 75 male with the age range of 18-30 years (Including: 25 professional wrestlers, 25 professional taekwondo players and 25 non-athlete subjects). Participants were selected through simple non-probability sampling. To assess proprioception of craniocervical region, angular repositioning of two positions (neutral and 50% of range of motion) was evaluated by using the cervical range of motion device (CROM device). The statistical method which used in this study was one way ANOVA.

Results: Accuracy of target repositioning (50% of range of motion) of extension, right and left rotation were significantly different between three groups (p<0.05). Returning to neutral position from mentioned movement was associated with a significant error (p<0.05).

Conclusion: It is assumed that proprioception of craniocervical region has been affected by trauma in wrestlers and taekwondo players, so that the accuracy of head repositioning for both neutral and target positions were reduced in wrestlers. However, taekwondo players had more errors in repositioning of target angle.

Keywords: Proprioception, Repositioning error, Craniocervical, Wrestlers, Taekwondo players