Underlying physiological and biomechanical mechanisms related to postural control of Parkour practitioners: a pilot study

BACKGROUND: Parkour can be seen as a sport, an art, a philosophy, a state of mind, an art of living. Practitioners (known as “tracers”) have to overcome obstacles in their path by adapting their movements to the given environment to reach somewhere or something or to escape from someone or something. However, the knowledge about the underlying mechanisms related to postural control in tracers is still lacking. AIM: To examine the postural control in tracers using global, structural, and spectral stabilometric descriptors. METHOD: Five tracers and five controls, all-male, stood upright for 30 seconds, under different conditions of vision (open or closed eyes), surface (soft or rigid), and base of support (bipedal, semi-tandem, or Parkour stance). RESULTS: In more challenging conditions, the tracers compared to controls, showed a lower amount of sway, needed less postural commands, and used sensory information to control balance differently. CONCLUSION: Tracers have better postural control than controls. Moreover, although current findings are based on data from a small number of subjects, the results suggest that these differences between groups are related to different underlying physiological and biomechanical mechanisms related to postural control.