Dynamics of Postural Control in Elite Sport Rifle Shooters

Abstract

Thirteen shooters and eleven non-shooters completed two-legged and single-legged stance on a force platform. The dynamics of the center of pressure trajectory was assessed using sample entropy, correlation dimension and entropic half-life. Additionally, the body sway was quantified as the elliptical area of the trajectory. The shooters had lower sample entropy and tended to have longer entropic half-life during the single-legged stance. Across the two tasks, the correlation dimension in the anterior-posterior direction and the body sway in both directions were lower in the shooters. This suggests that extensive training in quiet stance is associated with altered postural control, especially during challenging single-legged stance and to a lesser extend during two-legged stance.