Walking Backwards Improves High School Female Athletes' Balance

The main objective of study was to investigate the effect of backward walking on balance in healthy athletic high school girls. Thirty athletic high school girls were selected with mean age 16.4±0.50 and mean weight of 59.4±12.5 and mean height 1.61±0.05. The participants attended backward walking training sessions 3 times a week for period of 6 weeks. Prior and middle and after training pretest and post-test of semi dynamic balance and dynamic balance were administered using Modified Romberg and Y test. The data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA and Bonferroni post-hoc test (p<0.05). Results showed that backward walking would have significant impact on semi dynamic and dynamic balance (p≤0.000). Due to its positive impact on balance of athletic girls, backward walking training can be used as a complementary training program to increase their efficiency and prevention of injuries. Keywords: Backward walking, Semi dynamic Balance, Dynamic Balance, Proprioception