To examine lower extremity joint contributions to a landing task in high-(HA) and low-arched (LA) female athletes by quantifying vertical stiffness, joint work and relative joint contributions to landing.
Methods: Twenty healthy female recreational athletes (10 HA and 10 LA) performed five barefoot drop landings from a height of 30cm. Three-dimensional kinematics (240Hz) and ground reaction forces (960Hz) were recorded simultaneously. Vertical stiffness, joint work values and relative joint work values were calculated using Visual 3D and MatLab.
Results: HA athletes had significantly greater vertical stiffness compared to LA athletes (p=0.013). Though no differences in ankle joint work were observed (p=0.252), HA athletes had smaller magnitudes of knee (p=0.046), hip (p=0.019) and total lower extremity joint work values (p=0.016) compared to LA athletes. HA athletes had greater relative contributions of the ankle (p=0.032) and smaller relative contributions of the hip (p=0.049) compared to LA athletes. No differences in relative contributions of the knee were observed (p=0.255).
Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that aberrant foot structure is associated with unique contributions of lower extremity joints to load attenuation during landing. These data may provide insight into the unique injury mechanisms associated with arch height in female athletes.
Keywords: Arch; Foot; Injury; Kinetics; Landing; Work.
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