Bilateral ground reaction forces and joint moments for lateral sidestepping and crossover stepping tasks

Abstract

Racquet sports have high levels of joint injuries suggesting the joint loads during play may be excessive. Sports such as badminton employ lateral sidestepping (SS) and crossover stepping (XS) movements which so far have not been described in terms of biomechanics. This study examined bilateral ground reaction forces and three dimensional joint kinetics for both these gaits in order to determine the demands of the movements on the leading and trailing limb and predict the contribution of these movements to the occurrence of overuse injury of the lower limbs. A force platform and motion-analysis system were used to record ground reaction forces and track marker trajectories of 9 experienced male badminton players performing lateral SS, XS and forward running tasks at a controlled speed of 3 m·s(-1) using their normal technique. Ground reaction force and kinetic data for the hip, knee and ankle were analyzed, averaged across the group and the biomechanical variables compared. In all cases the ground reaction forces and joint moments were less than those experienced during moderate running suggesting that in normal play SS and XS gaits do not lead to high forces that could contribute to increased injury risk. Ground reaction forces during SS and XS do not appear to contribute to the development of overuse injury. The distinct roles of the leading and trailing limb, acting as a generator of vertical force and shock absorber respectively, during the SS and XS may however contribute to the development of muscular imbalances which may ultimately contribute to the development of overuse injury. However it is still possible that faulty use of these gaits might lead to high loads and this should be the subject of future work. Key pointsGround reaction forces and joint moments during lateral stepping are smaller in magnitude than those experienced during moderate running.Force exposure in SS and XS gaits in normal play does not appear to contribute to the development of overuse injuryThe leading and trailing limbs perform distinct roles, acting as a generator of vertical force and shock absorber respectively.This distinct contribution may contribute to the development of muscular imbalances which may ultimately contribute to the development of overuse injury.

Keywords: Badminton; biomechanics; injury.; movement.

Figure 1.

Posterior view of the (a) lateral sidestepping and (b) lateral crossover stepping movements tested. The leading limb is shown in red while the trailing limb is shown in blue. The yellow structure connecting the limbs represents the hip. The green lines indicate the wand system references used for motion capture. Images taken from CODAmotion software.

Figure 2.

GRF data averages for a typical subject performing SS, XS and running (dashed line) gaits. The vertical scale is normalized to body mass units (BMU, where 1 = 1 x body mass) and the horizontal scale is normalized to stance phase duration from impact to toe-off of the respective limb.

Figure 3.

GRF averages for the 9 squad members is presented for the leading and trailing limb SS and XS as well as right limb Run. Data is presented for a) the leading limb and b) the trailing limb. { indicates statistically significant differences in vertical and horizontal GRF parameters.

Figure 4.

Summary of the differences in peak joint moments between the leading and trailing limbs during the SS and XS.* indicates significant differences between the leading and trailing limb. Joint moment values are expressed as Nm·kg^-1.

Figure 5.

Joint moments from the current investigation compared to the literature. Joint moments are expressed as Newton meters per kg body mass. The horizontal scale is speed, expressed in meters per second.