Term of Award

Spring 2015

Degree Name

Master of Science in Kinesiology (M.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Health and Kinesiology

Committee Chair

Barry Munkasy

Committee Member 1

Li Li

Committee Member 2

Barry Joyner

Abstract

Purpose: To determine if a relationship exists between core stability related measures (CSRM) and total cheer performance (TCP); including tumbling, jumping, and stunting. Secondly, to determine if TCP can be predicted by these CSRM.

Methods: Fifty female competitive cheerleading bases aged 10-18 from various all-star cheer programs in the southeastern region of the United States were included. Participants filled out a current health status questionnaire prior to participation. The CSRM included the timed sit-up test, trunk extensor endurance test, trunk flexion to extension range of motion, dominant limb single leg stance test, and normalized to height dominant limb single leg hop distance. Performance measures included a standing back tuck, a running tumbling dismount, a toe-touch, and a base skill assessment. The CSRM were tested during one session and tumbling and jump performance was video recorded during a separate session. Pearson’s product-moment correlations were used to examine the relationship between CSRM and TCP, multiple regressions were run to predict TCP, and independent t-tests were run to discriminate top performers from bottom performers.

Results: Significant correlations were present between TCP and gymnastics experience, normalized hop distance, and timed sit-up test. Backward regression analysis revealed a prediction equation for TCP including the normalized hop distance, dominant limb single leg stance test, and timed sit-up test, with an adjusted R2 of 0.47 ± 2.77. Independent t-tests revealed significantly greater scores of top performers in timed sit-up test, dominant limb single leg hop distance, and normalized hop distance compared to bottom scoring performers.

Conclusions: Three CSRM can predict about half of performance in adolescent competitive cheerleaders. Future research should aim to extend methods utilized in this study to various sports.

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