Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/3058
Date of Award
6-2025
Degree Name
MS in Biomedical Engineering
Department/Program
Biomedical Engineering
College
College of Engineering
Advisor
Stephen Klisch
Advisor Department
Mechanical Engineering
Advisor College
College of Engineering
Abstract
Disc golf is an underrepresented sport in biomechanics research, even though it could have effects on gait and balance. Forward and side lunges performed while throwing discs can improve static and dynamic balance. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of playing disc golf on various static and dynamic balance metrics. Static and dynamic balance experiments were done on 20 disc golf players and 20 control participants to record their RMS of acceleration during the double leg, tandem, and single leg static poses, as well as their gait speed, cadence, stride length, right step length, left step length, and step width during gait. Static data were collected using the acceleration of a handheld smartphone using the MATLAB app, and dynamic data were collected with the smartphone in the participant’s pocket using the OneStep app. The results of the disc golf players were compared against those of the control group using t-tests and regression analyses. It was found that (1) the disc golf players had improved gait speed, stride length, right step length, and left step length, and (2) after accounting for age, it was found that older age was correlated with worse tandem balance. The findings showed that playing disc golf can improve dynamic balance, but not necessarily static balance.