Ankle joint position sense in male taekwondo athletes after wobble board training

Background There is evidence of an improvement in sportive performance in the athletes after completing a wobble board training program. The aim of this study was to determine whether a six-week wobble board training increased the awareness of joint position sense on ankle joint proprioception in male taekwondo athletes. Material/Methods: Eighteen male taekwondo athletes took part in this study. Participants were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. For experimental group (n=10) the average age, height, weight and experience time of the subjects were 19.50±2.07 years, 175.80±7.27 cm, 64.80±4.71 kg and 6.30±1.49 years, respectively. For control group (n=8) it was 19.88±2.30 years, 173.75±5.06 cm, 67.50±5.55 kg and 7.13±2.56 years, respectively. Experimental group took wobble board was training three times a week for the period of six weeks. To assess ankle joint position sense (JPS), passive angle reproduction test was performed by the Biodex System 3 Dynamometer (Biodex Medical Systems, Shirley, NY, USA). Passive angle reproduction test was conducted on dominant and nondominant ankle at 5° and 25° of plantar flexion angles. Measurements were taken twice, before and after training. Results: There was no significant difference in dominant ankle at 5° between JPS measurements before and after training in experimental group (t=1.920, p=0.087). JPS increased significantly in dominant ankle at 25° (t=3.060, p=0.014), non-dominant ankle at 5° (t=2.959, p=0.016) and 25° (t=3.213, p=0.011) in exerimental group. Conclusions: The WBT of taekwondo athletes had improved JPS, especially in non-dominant ankle. The proprioception training with wobble board may provide an advantage in using dominant leg during performing taekwondo sport moves and in decreasing the number of ankle injuries in male taekwondo athletes. © ARCHIVES OF BUDO.