Biomechanical factors associated with injury during landing in jump sports

Abstract

Many sport and movement activities contain a jumping component which necessitates landing. Several injury surveys across a variety of jump sports have identified the lower extremities and specifically the knee joint as being a primary injury site. Factors which might contribute to the frequency and severity of such injuries include stresses to which the body is subjected during performance (forces and torques), body position at landing, performance execution and landing surface. Most of the initial landing studies were primarily descriptive in nature with many of the more recent efforts being directed toward identifying the specific performance factors that could account for the observed system stresses. Continued investigations into landing are necessary to more thoroughly understand the force attenuation mechanisms and critical performance variables associated with lower extremity injuries.