Author’s Reply to Paillard T: “Sport-Specific Balance Develops Specific Postural Skills”

Excerpt

Over the past 15 years, my research interest has centered on investigation of the physiological mechanisms of post-exercise balance impairment [1], the design of exercise programs for balance improvement [2], and the development of methods for its assessment [3]. To date, parameters of balance during (e.g. shooting) and after (e.g. biathlon) sport-specific exercise have been analyzed. The sentence “athletes of different specializations have a better ability to maintain balance in specific conditions (e.g. while standing on a narrow area of support) than physically active individuals” in the letter from Professor Thierry Paillard [4] should be slightly revised. In the particular study, sway velocity while standing on narrow and wide areas of support in gymnasts and ice-hockey players was compared. …