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Related Experiment Videos

Control strategy for a hand balance.

Maurice R Yeadon1, Grant Trewartha

  • 1School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Loughborough University, UK.

Motor Control
|March 5, 2004
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Gymnasts use a "wrist strategy" to maintain hand balance, correcting disturbances with wrist torque and stabilizing shoulder/hip torques. This strategy involves long-latency reflexes, with delays of 160-240 ms.

Area of Science:

  • Biomechanics
  • Human Motor Control
  • Sports Science

Background:

  • Maintaining balance during complex motor tasks like handstands requires sophisticated neural control.
  • Previous hypotheses suggested various strategies, but the specific mechanisms in gymnastics hand balances were not fully elucidated.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the control strategy gymnasts employ to maintain a hand balance.
  • To test the hypothesis of a
  • Main_Methods: [
  • 2-dimensional inverse dynamics analysis was performed.
  • Net joint torque time histories for wrist, shoulder, and hip were calculated.

Main Methods:

  • Four male gymnasts performed hand balances.
  • 2-dimensional inverse dynamics was used to calculate net joint torques.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Torques at wrist, shoulder, and hip were analyzed in the sagittal plane.

    • Main Results:

    • All gymnasts utilized a wrist strategy for balance control.
    • Time delays in the wrist strategy ranged from 160 to 240 milliseconds.
    • Shoulder and hip torques largely maintained a fixed body configuration, explaining 86% of variance, though actual torques exceeded predictions.

    Conclusions:

    • The wrist strategy, involving wrist torque adjustments and synergistic shoulder/hip torques, is key for hand balance.
    • Observed time delays suggest the involvement of long-latency reflexes in this control.
    • The precise roles of vestibular and visual systems in gymnastics hand balance require further investigation.