Relevance of absolute knee loading during vertical jump in elite female athletes

(Relevanz der absoluten Kniebelastung während des vertikal Sprungs bei Hochleistungssportlerinnen)

Knee injuries are very common in dynamic sports such as football (FB), handball (HB) and volleyball (VB), particularly in women. Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is a debilitating injury which often influences the further career of athletes. ACL injury risk appears to be associated with knee abduction loading in tasks such as the drop vertical jump (DVJ), which is therefore commonly used as a functional screening test (Hewett 2005). However, previous research provides no clear consensus about the use and interpretation of either absolute or relative knee joint moments during DVJ tests. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine differences in absolute knee loading during DVJ tasks between athletes from different sports and whether these differences remain after normalization for anthropometrics. Methods 43 injury-free female athletes (22 FB, 11 HB and 10 VB) volunteered to participate (mean age=21.1±3.4yrs). All subjects performed 3 DVJs from 30cm after a warm-up protocol. Kinematics and kinetics were measured according to the lower limb trunk model (Vanrenterghem 2010) using a 6 camera motion analysis system (Vicon) and 2 separated force plates (AMTI). Peak external knee abduction moments (eKAM), external knee flexion moments (eKFM) and peak vertical ground reaction forces (vGRF) were calculated for each leg between touchdown and take-off. Jump height (JH) was calculated using the vertical displacement of the center of mass. Results Jump height was significantly higher in VB than in FB (p<0.001) and HB (p<0.001). In frontal plane, absolute dominant eKAM was significantly higher in VB compared to HB (p=0.034). In sagittal plane, absolute dominant eKFM was significantly higher in VB compared to FB (p=0.014). No significant differences in peak vGRF between groups were found. After normalization of eKAM and eKFM for body weight and height (%Nm), no significant differences in relative external knee moments between groups were found. Jump height was not significantly correlated with the external knee moments in all groups. Discussion The non-significant correlation between JH and external knee moments in FB, HB or VB suggests that jump height is not related to knee loading during a DVJ task. Body weight and height had a clear effect on knee loading. The VB showed a significant greater absolute eKAM and eKFM compared to the other groups and can therefore be considered to be at higher risk for ACL injury. This may, with respect to injury prevention, suggest that the absolute knee loading remains an important variable due to the strain produced by these loadings on static and dynamic restraints of the knee.
© Copyright 2012 17th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science (ECSS), Bruges, 4. -7. July 2012. Veröffentlicht von Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Schlagworte: Belastung Knie Belastungsgestaltung weiblich Relation Verletzung Schaden Band Leistung Sprung Spielsportart Handball Volleyball Fußball
Notationen: Trainingswissenschaft Spielsportarten
Veröffentlicht in: 17th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science (ECSS), Bruges, 4. -7. July 2012
Herausgeber: R. Meeusen, J. Duchateau, B. Roelands, M. Klass, B. De Geus, S. Baudry, E. Tsolakidis
Veröffentlicht: Brügge Vrije Universiteit Brussel 2012
Seiten: 575
Dokumentenarten: Kongressband, Tagungsbericht
Sprache: Englisch
Level: hoch