Effect of Wobble Board Balance Training Program among Athletes with Functionally Unstable Ankle Joint

The objective of the study was to find out the effect of wobble board training program on balance in athletes with Functional Ankle Instability (FAI). A total of 30 subjects (n=30) with FAI were recruited based on the set inclusion and exclusion
the proprioceptive deficit and balance impairment. In the absence of expensive and sophisticated equipments, the balance training can be delivered by means of utilizing simple device like wobble board. The wobble board training improves the proprioception and balance through stimulation of mechanoreceptors which are available in the muscle, tendon, ligament and joint through loading mechanism (Hubscher et al. 2010). An earlier literature also described the significant effect of wobble board training in FAI (Freeman et al. 1965). On the other hand another evidence suggests that wobble training is not promoting balance following FAI. However, the evidence is scarce on the impact of wobble board training in improving balance among function ankle instability subjects (Azeem et al. 2010). The inconsistencyof the results on the effect of wobble board training on balance promoted to carry out a study on the effect of wobble board training program on static and dynamic
criteria. All the subjects were evaluated for balance using single limb stance test and functional reach test and they were subjected to wobble board training program for five sessions in a week for four weeks. Paired sample t test was used to compare the mean between the pre and post-test data’s and the level of significance was set at level of 0.05. In single limb stance test, the athletes scored high post-training score mean value [26.4] than pre training score [9.73]. Thus the difference is statistically confirmed by the obtained‘t’ value [16.00]. In functional reach test, the athletes scored high post-training score mean value [15.88] than pre training score (14.26). Thus the difference was statistically confirmed by the obtained‘t’ value [12.54]. This indicated that wobble board training promoted the static and dynamic balance in athletes with functionally unstable ankle. Hence, it can be concluded that wobble board training might be effective in improving balance among athletes with functionally unstable ankle.