Did you know, that athletes with better balance abilities has less sport injuries? That is why many athletes do balance training to prevent injuries to the ankle and knee joints during sport. Balance training involves doing exercises that strengthen the muscles that help keep you upright, including your legs and core. These exercises will improve stability, and help athletes to stay on their feet in different intense moments of the game.
A scientific review compared the balance ability of athletes to figure out if balance also made them better athletes. They studied athletes in different sports. They found for instants that gymnasts tended to have the best balance ability, followed by soccer players, swimmers and then basketball players. Balance ability was shown to be related to rifle shooting accuracy, archery shooting accuracy and ice hockey maximum skating speed.
Athletic Improvements
Athletes, who were put on a balance focused training program improved with their athletic abilities. The review found, that balance training resulted in improvements in vertical jump and agility. Balance training mixed with resistance training would make athletes improve even more.
Doing balance exercises can be intense. You can do challenging yoga poses, or just practicing standing on one leg. You can use equipment that forces your body to stabilise itself, like a gymnastics rubber ball or a balance board.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17503879/