| Popis: |
Background: The unique demands of different sports may contribute to the prevalence of biomechanical injury risk factors for female, adolescent athletes. However, there has been insufficient investigation on the effect of different sports on landing biomechanics.Hypothesis/Purpose: We hypothesize that there will be knee biomechanical differences during a forward drop jump landing task dependent on sport participation, in adolescent female athletes due to different movements involved in basketball, soccer, and volleyball. Study Design: Cohort study Methods: 116 participants were recruited from middle and high school basketball, soccer, or volleyball teams in four local school districts. Participants completed a forward drop jump landing task with 3D motion capture instrumentation to capture peak knee flexion angle and peak knee abduction angle for each participant. Two one-way ANOVAs compared knee flexion and abduction angle between basketball, soccer, and volleyball athletes. Results: There was a statistically significant main effect of sport participation for peak knee flexion angle, F(2,111) = 3.655, p < 0.029, ω2 = 0.062. However, post-hoc testing revealed no significant differences between groups. There was a medium effect size (d=0.46) for knee flexion angle between basketball and volleyball athletes. For peak knee abduction angle, there was no statistically significant main effect (F(2,111) = 1.185, p < 0.310, ω2 = 0.021). Conclusion: Although there no statistically significant differences in the variables of interest between sports, there was a trend towards significance for peak knee flexion in basketball and volleyball players with a medium effect size. The forward drop jump test may not be an adequate test to find differences in biomechanics between sports. Differences in biomechanics between sports may suggest a need for sport-specific neuromuscular training injury prevention programs to better reduce ACL injuries in athletes.Level of Evidence: 3 |
