Motor Control Commons^™

Alternate Foot Placement: Investigating The Role Of Gait Parameters, Planar Obstacle Complexity, And Athletic Training, Brittany A. Baxter

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

On a daily basis modifications, based upon environmental demands and the capabilities of the individual, are made to the locomotor pattern to enable avoidance of undesirable landing areas (i.e. planar obstacles). Athletes and dancers have been suggested to have superior perception-action coupling compared to non-athletes, allowing them to perform various tasks at a greater speed without a loss of precision (Federici et al., 2005; Gerin-Lajoie et al. (2007). The current study assessed non-athletes, dancers, and field athletes to investigate whether training influences the maintenance of forward progression and stability in relation to alternate foot placement during planar obstacle avoidance. Eleven …