Balance as a predictor towards independent cycling

Abstract

Cycling is a milestone for children. Learning to ride a bike is an acquired skill, often obtained with difficulty. Fundamental movement skills (FMS) are generally developed in early childhood. Children have the developmental potential to progress to the mature stage of most FMS by the age of 6, at which point they are able to combine FMS to produce specialised skills in sports and recreational activities like cycling. Balance, a subset of FMS, has often thought to be essential in cycling; however, there is no empirical evidence to support this statement. Thus, this study investigates if balance is a contributing factor to learning to cycle. 72 children (3.7+/-0.5) were assessed pre and post a 5 week intervention. The children were assessed on ability to cycle independently and balance ability. Ability to cycle independently was measured using a traditional bike. If the child was able to cycle without assistance (tester holding onto bike) they were given a score of 1 and if they could not a score of 0. No children were able to cycle independently at pre-intervention. Balance ability was measured using the balance subset of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, second edition (MABC-2). All children attended 10 cycling lessons over 5 weeks. Linear regressions were run to assess whether the balance at pre-intervention predicted if a child would be able the cycle independently post-intervention. Balance ability did not predict cycling independently (r^2=.002, p>.05). The current results would suggest that the FMS skill of balance is not a contributing factor to learning to cycle. This result, while in contrast to the general assumption, is not surprising as most children do not reach the mastery level of FMS till the age of 6. Therefore, between 3 and 5 years, when children generally learn to cycle, they are not yet at the phase of refining FMS to produce sport specific skills. Further research should investigate (i) if other FMS subsets or a combination of FMS contribute to learning to cycle and (ii) if cycling is an independent skill learnt at parallel to FMS