Effects of 6-Week Agility Ladder Drills during Recess Intervention on Dynamic Balance Performance

IntroductionLow physical activity (PA) participation rate of youth is a global issue for all the countries (Belanger et al., 2009). A report found that one quarter of the children in the USA did not achieve the recommended 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) participation level every day (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008). Hong Kong youth may be classified as one of the most sedentary populations in the world (Adab & Macfarlane, 1998; Lee & Tsang, 2004). Recently, the Hong Kong report card on physical activity for children and youth revealed that less than half of the children and youth met the recommended physical activity level (Huang et al., 2016). The worse situation was reflected in the results of a territory-wide community fitness survey in Hong Kong, that only 9.5% of boys and 7.0% of girls in the 7 to 12 age group were classified as physically active with an average of the recommended 60 minutes per day of MVPA (Census and Statistics Department, 2013).Hong Kong is one of the highest population density cities in the world, the space-confined school environment limited school children to engage in PA (Johns & Ha, 1999). To address the low levels of PA, schools can provide a significant source of PA for the children by: allotting more Physical Education (PE) periods; increasing amount of MVPA in PE lessons; providing PA during recess time; integrating PA throughout the school day; and providing PA opportunities before and after school (Cox et al., 2011; Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2004; Kriemler et al., 2011; Ng et al., 2016; Pate et al., 2006).Among all the possible strategies, the intervention conducted during recess period is more suitable to Hong Kong situation. It not only can promote the PA level of school-aged children (Escalante et al., 2014; Parrish, Okely, Stanley & Ridgers, 2013; Ridgers, Stratton & Fairclough, 2006; Ridgers et al., 2012), but also minimizes the disturbance of the tight schedule of the children before and after school periods. Moreover, safety concern is guaranteed as the activities were conducted under the supervision of teachers (Ng, 2002; Sum, 2016).The modification of playground setting such as added equipment or materials, playground markings and playground zones is the most common approaches among all the designs and implementations of the recess intervention (Parrish, Okely, Stanley & Ridgers, 2013). Studies were mainly focused on the assessment of the adhesive of the PA level during and after the recess intervention. Only few studies addressed other outcome measures such as the changes of sedentary time and energy expenditure (Ickes, Erwin & Beighle, 2013). Dynamic balance is the ability to maintain a stable base of support while completing a functional task without compromising one's base of support (Winter, Patla & Frank, 1990). It involves a complexity demand of proprioception, range of motion (ROM), and strength (Ricotti, 2011). Agility ladder is a popular piece of equipment for training speed, coordination, balance, and agility of people with different age group, sports and gender (Brown & Ferrigno, 2014; Ricotti, 2011; Sheppard & Young, 2006; White, 2007). There is no study to explore the training effects of agility ladder drills on Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) in the elementary school boys during recess intervention. We hypothesized that the dynamic balance ability of the children would be increased after 6-week agility ladder drills during recess period. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of 6-week agility ladder drills during recess time on dynamic balance ability in school boys.MethodsParticipantsSeventy-one out of 356 school boys aged 6-13 years old, were recruited from a subsidized Catholic boy's primary school in Western District of Hong Kong during the period of April-June 2016. According to their self-reported health record, none of the children had musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, vestibular, visual, neurologic disorder, surgery or underwent balance training or feet muscle strengthening within 6 months at the time of recruitment. …

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