A THREE-DIMENSIONAL MOTION ANALYSIS OF TWO-HANDED AND WAIST BELT PULLING BACKWARD EXERCISES IN ELITE TUG OF WAR ATHLETES

In order to find the benefits of the waist belt (WB) in Tug of War (TOW) sport, the purpose of this study was to compare kinematic differences between two-handed (TH) and WB pulling backward exercises. The team that holds the gold medal record for the World Indoor TOW Championships 2004 participated in this study (N=20). According to threedimensional video analysis procedures using the direct linear transformation analysis method, the mean body center of mass (CaM) displacement during TH and WB trials were 0.7m and 1.45m, respectively. Moreover, the mean CaM speed of WB was approximately 1.6 times faster than that of TH. These results suggest that the WB had the efficacy to accomplish a given task in the pulling backward exercise. Therefore it is concluded that WB might be one of useful equipmenls in the TOW sport.