Balance among a selected group of judo players with intellectual disabilities

People with intellectual disabilities, in comparison to people without intellectual disabilities, have less developed motor skills, including balance. Engaging in sport activities is important for the development of their motor skills, as well as maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Judo has proved to be an appropriate sport activity for people with intellectual disabilities. The primary purpose of this paper was to determine the level of balance among a selected group of judo players with intellectual disabilities before and after a three-month long exercise program. We also wanted to present an exercise program, used to develop balance. Five adults with moderate intellectual disabilities, three men and two women, aged between 28 and 42 were included in our research. The results were obtained using Bruininks-Oseretsky test of motor proficiency. Overall, the balance of most test subjects was comparable to five-year old children without intellectual disabilities. The results also show an improvement of balance after completing the three-month long exercise program