Landing technique affects knee loading and position during athletic tasks

Abstract

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries have been reported to occur with the ankle in a dorsiflexed position at initial contact. Few studies have attempted to quantify the biomechanical parameters related with such landing patterns during athletic tasks.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects that two landing techniques have in lower extremity biomechanics while performing two tasks.

Design: Single-group repeated measures design.

Methods: Twenty female soccer athletes from a Division I institution performed two landing techniques (forefoot and rearfoot) during two unanticipated tasks (sidestep cutting and pivot). Repeated measures analyses of variance were conducted to assess differences in the kinematic and kinetic parameters between landing techniques for each task.

Results: The forefoot landing technique had significantly higher internal knee adductor moment than the rearfoot for both the pivot and sidestep cutting task (p<0.001 and p=0.003, respectively). For the sidestep cutting task, participants had increased knee valgus angle with the rearfoot, whereas for the pivot they had increased knee valgus with the forefoot landing technique (p<0.05).

Conclusions: The results of this study highlighted that there are inherent differences in biomechanical outcomes between foot-landing techniques. The forefoot landing technique increasingly affects knee adduction moment loading, which can potentially place a higher strain on the ACL. Essentially, the demands of the landing technique on lower extremity biomechanics (e.g., hip and knee) are task dependent.

Figure 1

Changes observed in knee flexion angular displacement (degrees) across the two tasks (sidestep, pivot) and landing techniques (rearfoot, forefoot). Angular displacement curves are shown during the stance phase. Each curve represents the mean normative value of the entire sample.