title: Associations Between Balance and Muscle Strength, Power Performance in Male Youth Athletes of Different Maturity Status.
abstract: Balance, strength and power relationships may contain important information at various maturational stages to determine training priorities.
  
  
  
  The objective was to examine maturity-specific relationships of static/dynamic balance with strength and power measures in young male athletes.
  
  
  
  Soccer players (N = 130) aged 10-16 were assessed with the Stork and Y balance (YBT) tests. Strength/power measures included back extensor muscle strength, standing long jump (SLJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), and 3-hop jump tests. Associations between balance with strength/power variables were calculated according to peak-height-velocity (PHV).
  
  
  
  There were significant medium-large sized correlations between all balance measures with back extensor strength (r = .486-.791) and large associations with power (r = .511-.827). These correlation coefficients were significantly different between pre-PHV and circa PHV as well as pre-PHV and post-PHV with larger associations in the more mature groups. Irrespective of maturity-status, SLJ was the best strength/power predictor with the highest proportion of variance (12-47%) for balance (i.e., Stork eyes opened) and the YBT was the best balance predictor with the highest proportion of variance (43-78%) for all strength/power variables.
  
  
  
  The associations between balance and muscle strength/power measures in youth athletes that increase with maturity may imply transfer effects from balance to strength/power training and vice versa in youth athletes.
authors.affiliation: 1 National Center of Medicine and Science in Sports (CNMSS).
authors.forename: Raouf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hammami
authors.affiliation: 1 National Center of Medicine and Science in Sports (CNMSS).
authors.forename: Anis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chaouachi
authors.affiliation: 1 National Center of Medicine and Science in Sports (CNMSS).
authors.forename: Issam
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Makhlouf
authors.affiliation: 2 University of Potsdam.
authors.forename: Urs
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Granacher
authors.affiliation: 3 Memorial University of Newfoundland.
authors.forename: David G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Behm
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005080:Exercise Test; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D004856:Postural Balance; D012916:Soccer; D014416:Tunisia
keywords: adolescents; children; peak height velocity; relationships; training