Correlation Between Static Balance, Dynamic Balance, And Hop Tests In Adult Female Field Hockey Players

Most field hockey injuries are to the lower extremity (LE) with ≈ 64% caused by noncontact mechanisms. Lower extremity injury prevention screening programs in team agility sports (e.g., soccer, basketball) commonly employ single-leg measures of motor performance (e.g., balance, hop tests). In field hockey, there is a relative dearth of information regarding LE motor performance injury prevention screening methods. Knowing whether balance or hop tests capture the same or different aspects of lower limb motor performance will inform the design of injury prevention screening methods in field hockey. PURPOSE: To assess correlations between measures of static balance (eyes-closed single-leg balance [SLB]), dynamic balance (anterior reach test [ART]), triple hop for distance (THD), and 6-meter hop for time (6MHT) in adult female field hockey players. It was hypothesized there would be no significant strong relationships between measures for the left or right LE. METHODS: Thirty players (height, 165.6 ± 5.9 cm; mass, 64.8 ± 5.5 kg; age, 25.6 ± 4.5 yr) competing in the English Women’s Hockey League participated. Units of measurement were: SLB, seconds (s); ART, percentage leg length (%LL); THD, %LL; 6MHT, s. Pearson correlations were used to estimate the strength of linear relationships (very weak, < 0.25; weak, 0.25; moderate, 0.50; strong, 0.75; very strong, > 0.75) with alpha set at 0.05. RESULTS: Correlations ranged from very weak to moderate-to-strong. For the left LE: SLB vs ART (r = 0.02, p > 0.05), SLB vs THD (r = -0.32, p > 0.05), SLB vs 6MHT (r = 0.20, p > 0.05), ART vs THD (r = 0.23, p > 0.05), ART vs 6MHT (r = -0.40, p < 0.05), THD vs 6MHT (r = -0.57, p < 0.01). For the right LE: SLB vs ART (r = -0.05, p > 0.05), SLB vs THD (r = -0.26, p > 0.05), SLB vs 6MHT (r = 0.20, p > 0.05), ART vs THD (r = 0.23, p > 0.05), ART vs 6MHT (r = -0.45, p < 0.05), THD vs 6MHT (r = -0.62, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: SLB and ART measures capture different aspects of balance performance, dynamic balance is not strongly related to horizontal hop performance, and repeated horizontal hop performance defined by distance or time are also not strongly related. Different measures capture different aspects of LE motor performance. Therefore, a selection of different measures may be required for thorough LE injury prevention screening in adult female field hockey players.