A Comparison of Kinaesthetic Sense in Athlete and Non-Athletic University Students

The purpose of this study was to compare the athlete and non - athlete students` kinesthetic capacities. In this study two sub senses of kinaesthesia including force reproduction ability and Joint reposition sense of elbow compared between athlete and non-athletic university students Methods:145 male and female athletic students that participated at Iranian Sport Universiade, 2014 (from volleyball, basketball, taekwondo, wrestling and archery) and 137 male and female non - athlete students between 20 and 23 years old were selected as samples of this study. Most common protocol used in active joint repositioning methods includes repositioning of elbow into a reference position. Measurements start with positioning the measured elbow in a specific position. The subject was asked to try to remember the position of the joint. Then the elbow was passively returned into the starting position. After familiarizing the subject with the reference position, he was asked to move the limb into the most appropriate place to match the reference position. The difference between the two represents the measure of active joint position sense. In the accuracy of hand force reproduction test the subject was asked to produce a special force submaximal hand grip (i.e. 40% of their maximal force) and then reproduce 40% of maximal force without using visual or verbal feedback. The difference between the two represents the measure of the accuracy of hand force reproduction. A t-test for independent samples was utilized to analyze the mean error scores of the two groups. Result and conclusion: The results indicated a significant difference between athlete and non-athlete students in both sub senses of kinaesthesia (P≤0.05). Statistical analysis indicated that that NCAA Division I student-athletes possess superior visual skills when compared to non-athletes students.We found higher accuracy scores for two sub senses of kinaesthesia for athlete students compared with non-athletic university students.