The effect of vestibular stimulation on eye-hand coordination and postural control in elite basketball players

The game of basketball requires complex eye-hand coordination and exceptional postural control ability. This study compared eye-hand coordination and postural control before and after vestibular stimulation in trained basketball players with healthy, age-matched controls. Fifteen trained basketball players and 17 healthy adults (all male, age range 19-25 years) were recruited. The participants were required to perform a fast finger-pointing task involving a moving visual target in a standing position, before and after whole head-and-body rotation at 150ºs-1 for 30 s seated in a rotational chair. Results show that the trained basketball players had shorter reaction times in eye-hand coordination tasks (a decrease of 23.3% vs an increase of 8.1% of controls, p=0.008) and regained postural control more quickly (mediolateral direction: 0.4% vs 43.3%; p=0.009; anteroposterior direction: 3.9% vs 21.5%, p=0.038) after vestibular stimulation. These data suggest that vestibular stimulation could enhance balance and eye-hand coordination among young basketball players. The findings may provide information for sports training and further research work.