scholarly journals Effect of Toe Type on Static Balance in Ballet Dancers

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-41
Author(s):  
Momoko Kizawa ◽  
Toshito Yasuda ◽  
Hiroaki Shima ◽  
Katsunori Mori ◽  
Seiya Tsujinaka ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVES: Some forefoot shapes are ideal for pointe work in ballet. Egyptian-type, with the hallux being longest and the remaining toes decreasing in size, and Greek-type, with the second toe longer than the hallux, are considered less optimal for pointe work. Square-type, with the second toe the same length as the hallux, is considered optimal. This study compared postural stability in the bipedal stance, demi pointe, and en pointe between ballet dancers with the two toe types using a stabilometer. METHODS: This study included 25 Japanese ballet academy dancers who had received ballet lessons for at least 6 years. Toes were categorized into Egyptian-type (n=14) and square-type (n=11). Bipedal stance, demi pointe, and en pointe were tested. Center of pressure (COP) parameters were calculated from ground-reaction forces using two force plates: total trajectory length (LNG), velocities of anterior-posterior (VAP) and medial-lateral directions (VML), and maximum range displacement in the anterior-posterior (MAXAP) and medial-lateral directions (MAXML). Mann-Whitney U-tests were used to examine differences in COP parameters. RESULTS: There were no differences in parameters during bipedal stance or demi pointe. However, dancers with Egyptian-type toes had significantly greater LNG (p<0.01), VML (p=0.01), MAXML (p<0.01), and MAXAP (p=0.03) during en pointe. CONCLUSIONS: Ballet dancers with Egyptian-type toes demonstrated greater displacement in the medial-lateral and anterior-posterior directions during en pointe. Ballet dancers should be aware of toe types and sway character to optimize ballet training and balance.

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Hiroyuki Sakata ◽  
Satoru Hashizume ◽  
Ryo Amma ◽  
Genki Hisano ◽  
Hiroto Murata ◽  
...  

Stroke ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 872-876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark G. Bowden ◽  
Chitralakshmi K. Balasubramanian ◽  
Richard R. Neptune ◽  
Steven A. Kautz

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo H. Marchetti ◽  
Maria I.V. Orselli ◽  
Marcos Duarte

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of unilateral and bilateral fatigue on both postural and power bipedal tasks. Ten healthy subjects performed two tasks: bipedal quiet standing and a maximal bipedal counter-movement jumping before and after unilateral (with either the dominant or nondominant lower limb) and bilateral (with both lower limbs) fatigue. We employed two force plates (one under each lower limb) to measure the ground reaction forces and center of pressure produced by subjects during the tasks. To quantify the postural sway during quiet standing, we calculated the resultant center of pressure (COP) speed and COP area of sway, as well as the mean weight distribution between lower limbs. To quantify the performance during the countermovement jumping, we calculated the jump height and the peak force of each lower limb. We observed that both unilateral and bilateral fatigue affected the performance of maximal voluntary jumping and standing tasks and that the effects of unilateral and bilateral fatigue were stronger in the dominant limb than in the nondominant limb during bipedal tasks. We conclude that unilateral neuromuscular fatigue affects both postural and power tasks negatively.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damiana A dos Santos ◽  
Claudiane A Fukuchi ◽  
Reginaldo K Fukuchi ◽  
Marcos Duarte

This article describes a public data set with the three-dimensional kinematics of the whole body and the ground reaction forces (with a dual force platform setup) of subjects standing still for 60 s in different conditions, in which the vision and the standing surface were manipulated. Twenty-seven young subjects and 22 old subjects were evaluated. The data set comprises a file with metadata plus 1,813 files with the ground reaction force (GRF) and kinematics data for the 49 subjects (three files for each of the 12 trials plus one file for each subject). The file with metadata has information about each subject’s sociocultural, demographic, and health characteristics. The files with the GRF have the data from each force platform and from the resultant GRF (including the center of pressure data). The files with the kinematics have the three-dimensional position of the 42 markers used for the kinematic model of the whole body and the 73 calculated angles. In this text, we illustrate how to access, analyze, and visualize the data set. All the data is available at Figshare (DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.4525082 ), and a companion Jupyter Notebook (available at https://github.com/demotu/datasets ) presents the programming code to generate analyses and other examples.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damiana A dos Santos ◽  
Claudiane A Fukuchi ◽  
Reginaldo K Fukuchi ◽  
Marcos Duarte

This article describes a public data set with the three-dimensional kinematics of the whole body and the ground reaction forces (with a dual force platform setup) of subjects standing still for 60 s in different conditions, in which the vision and the standing surface were manipulated. Twenty-seven young subjects and 22 old subjects were evaluated. The data set comprises a file with metadata plus 1,813 files with the ground reaction force (GRF) and kinematics data for the 49 subjects (three files for each of the 12 trials plus one file for each subject). The file with metadata has information about each subject’s sociocultural, demographic, and health characteristics. The files with the GRF have the data from each force platform and from the resultant GRF (including the center of pressure data). The files with the kinematics have the three-dimensional position of the 42 markers used for the kinematic model of the whole body and the 73 calculated angles. In this text, we illustrate how to access, analyze, and visualize the data set. All the data is available at Figshare (DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.4525082 ), and a companion Jupyter Notebook (available at https://github.com/demotu/datasets ) presents the programming code to generate analyses and other examples.


Author(s):  
Christopher Widdowson ◽  
Israel Becerra ◽  
Cameron Merrill ◽  
Ranxiao Frances Wang ◽  
Steven LaValle

Objective: To examine the hypothesis that constant speed is more comfortable than variable speed profiles and may minimize cybersickness. Background: Current best practices for virtual reality (VR) content creation suggest keeping any form of acceleration as short and infrequent as possible to mitigate cybersickness. Methods: In Experiment 1, participants experienced repetitions of simulated linear motion, and in Experiment 2, they experienced repetitions of a circular motion. Three speed profiles were tested in each experiment. Each trial lasted 2 min while standing. Cybersickness was measured using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) and operationally defined in terms of total severity scores. Postural stability was measured using a Wii Balance Board and operationally defined in terms of center of pressure (COP) path length. Postural measures were decomposed into anterior-posterior and medial-lateral axes and subjected to detrended fluctuation analysis. Results: For both experiments, no significant differences were observed between the three speed profiles in terms of cybersickness or postural stability, and none of the baseline postural measures could predict SSQ scores for the speed profile conditions. An axis effect was observed in both experiments such that normalized COP movement was significantly greater along the anterior-posterior axis than the medial-lateral axis. Conclusion: Results showed no convincing evidence to support the common belief that constant speed is more comfortable than variable speed profiles for scenarios typical of VR applications. Application: The present findings offer guidelines for the design of locomotion techniques involving traversal in VR environments.


2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 2663-2675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon F. Giszter ◽  
Michelle R. Davies ◽  
Virginia Graziani

Some rats spinalized P1/P2 achieve autonomous weight-supported locomotion and quiet stance as adults. We used force platforms and robot-applied perturbations to test such spinalized rats ( n = 6) that exhibited both weight-supporting locomotion and stance, and also normal rats ( n = 8). Ground reaction forces in individual limbs and the animals' center of pressure were examined. In normal rats, both forelimbs and hindlimbs participated actively to control horizontal components of ground reaction forces. Rostral perturbations increased forelimb ground reaction forces and caudal perturbations increased hindlimb ground reaction forces. Operate rats carried 60% body weight on the forelimbs and had a more rostral center of pressure placement. The pattern in normal rats was to carry significantly more weight on the hindlimbs in quiet stance (roughly 60%). The strategy of operate rats to compensate for perturbations was entirely in forelimbs; as a result, the hindlimbs were largely isolated from the perturbation. Stiffness magnitude of the whole body was measured: its magnitude was hourglass shaped, with the principal axis oriented rostrocaudally. Operate rats were significantly less stiff—only 60–75% of normal rats' stiffness. The injured rats adopt a stance strategy that isolates the hindlimbs from perturbation and may thus prevent hindlimb loadings. Such loadings could initiate reflex stepping, which we observed. This might activate lumbar pattern generators used in their locomotion. Adult spinalized rats never achieve independent hindlimb weight-supported stance. The stance strategy of the P1 spinalized rats differed strongly from the behavior of intact rats and may be difficult for rats spinalized as adults to master.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
pp. 1950036 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Rogelio Guadarrama Olvera ◽  
Emmanuel Dean Leon ◽  
Florian Bergner ◽  
Gordon Cheng

This work introduces a new sensing system for biped robots based on plantar robot skin, which provides not only the resultant forces applied on the ankles but a precise shape of the pressure distribution in the sole together with other extra sensing modalities (temperature, pre-touch and acceleration). The information provided by the plantar robot skin can be used to compute the center of pressure and the ground reaction forces. This information also enables the online construction of the supporting polygon and its preemptive shape before foot landing using the proximity sensors in the robot skin. Two experiments were designed to show the advantages of this new sensing technology for improving balance and walking controllers for biped robots over unknown terrain.


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