ABSTRACT

To explore the relationship between breathing and wheel movement during the wheelie balance phase, we asked 14 wheelie-capable participants (7 of whom were wheelchair users) to perform wheelies under 3 conditions. During normal wheelie balance, only 21% of participants noticed any relationship between breathing and wheel movement. Most participants were able to synchronize when asked to do so and a slight majority of them felt that their preferred pattern was to “breathe out in time with hands forward”. There was no consensus of whether such synchronization made the maintenance of wheelie balance easier or harder. When asked to reverse synchronize, the majority found that the maintenance of wheelie balance was more difficult. As yet, there is no evidence to support changes in wheelie-training protocols.