Quantify dynamic balance control in balance beam: measure of 3-D forces applied by expert gymnasts to the beam

摘要

Women gymnasts have to perform acrobatic skills in balance beam. The extremely reduced base of support (0.10 m), its height above the ground level (1.25 m) and the fact that acrobatic displacements require on this apparatus both foot standing and hand standing balances, are among the most important factors which determined the body's balance vulnerability. However, few studies on gymnast's balance control on beam have been conducted. The aim of the paper was to present the instrumentation of a balance beam that allowed to study the dynamic of reaction forces acting during the different supporting phases while acrobatic skill. The reliability of the results of external forces calculated from force plates and kinematic measurements (Gillet, 2003; Kingma, 1996) was evaluated by the mechanical equality of the Newton's second law. We focused on the basic movement of back walkover.