Presenter(s)
Hailey J. Meyers
Abstract
PURPOSE: Female athletes tend to be at high risk for lower limb injuries during non-contact landing. Relative peak landing force (RPLF) is the metric being monitored in this study to compare landing forces among three different women’s sports teams. RPLF is the amount of force the athlete is landing with compared to their body weight. This gives insight into athletes that could be at risk for lower limb injuries. METHODS: 16 gymnasts (height: 163.04 ± 4.84cm; BW: 62.17 ± 5.01kg) from the Winona State University gymnastics team participated in five weeks of countermovement jump (CMJ) testing using two force plates with a sampling rate of 1000 Hz. The gymnasts were tested twice a week for a total of 8 testing sessions. This study excludes participants who were injured, who missed two or more testing sessions in a row, or had frequent variability in their jump data causing inconsistent data for that athlete. The data was tracked and exported to a customized spreadsheet to compare with the Winona State University women’s soccer (height: 167.96 ± 4.63cm; BW: 66.38 ± 9.31kg) and basketball (height: 177.8 ± 4.70cm; BW: 73.15 ± 6.49kg) CMJ data that was previously collected using the same protocol. SPSS was used to calculate descriptive statistics and group differences in RPLF using one-way ANOVA. Bonferroni post hoc tests were used to analyze differences between groups. A significant value of p< 0.05 was set for all analyses. RESULTS: A significant group difference in RPLF was found among women’s sports (p= 0.021). A significant difference in landing force was found between gymnastics and basketball (p-value = 0.026, d = 4.60). However, there was no significant difference in landing force found between gymnastics and soccer (p-value = 1.000, d = 1.198) or basketball and soccer (p-value = 0.092, d = -3.35). Gymnastics showed higher RPLF with a group mean of 473.40 ± 11.15N/kg. Soccer landed with a group mean of 455.21 ±18.36N/kg. Basketball had a lower RPLF with a group mean of 377.14 ± 27.43N/kg.
CONCLUSION: The findings in this study show that gymnasts and soccer athletes tend to land with more force compared to basketball athletes. High landing forces can have a large impact on the lower body, leading that athlete to be at a higher risk of injury.
College
College of Nursing & Health Sciences
Department
Health, Exercise & Rehabilitative Sciences
Campus
Winona
First Advisor/Mentor
Becky Heinert, PT, MS, SCS, CPSS
Location
Winona, Minnesota
Start Date
4-24-2025 2:00 PM
End Date
4-24-2025 12:00 AM
Presentation Type
Poster Session
Format of Presentation or Performance
In-Person
Session
2b=2pm-3pm
Poster Number
38
Included in
Differences in Peak Relative Landing Forces in Division II Women’s Gymnastics, Basketball, and Soccer
Winona, Minnesota
PURPOSE: Female athletes tend to be at high risk for lower limb injuries during non-contact landing. Relative peak landing force (RPLF) is the metric being monitored in this study to compare landing forces among three different women’s sports teams. RPLF is the amount of force the athlete is landing with compared to their body weight. This gives insight into athletes that could be at risk for lower limb injuries. METHODS: 16 gymnasts (height: 163.04 ± 4.84cm; BW: 62.17 ± 5.01kg) from the Winona State University gymnastics team participated in five weeks of countermovement jump (CMJ) testing using two force plates with a sampling rate of 1000 Hz. The gymnasts were tested twice a week for a total of 8 testing sessions. This study excludes participants who were injured, who missed two or more testing sessions in a row, or had frequent variability in their jump data causing inconsistent data for that athlete. The data was tracked and exported to a customized spreadsheet to compare with the Winona State University women’s soccer (height: 167.96 ± 4.63cm; BW: 66.38 ± 9.31kg) and basketball (height: 177.8 ± 4.70cm; BW: 73.15 ± 6.49kg) CMJ data that was previously collected using the same protocol. SPSS was used to calculate descriptive statistics and group differences in RPLF using one-way ANOVA. Bonferroni post hoc tests were used to analyze differences between groups. A significant value of p< 0.05 was set for all analyses. RESULTS: A significant group difference in RPLF was found among women’s sports (p= 0.021). A significant difference in landing force was found between gymnastics and basketball (p-value = 0.026, d = 4.60). However, there was no significant difference in landing force found between gymnastics and soccer (p-value = 1.000, d = 1.198) or basketball and soccer (p-value = 0.092, d = -3.35). Gymnastics showed higher RPLF with a group mean of 473.40 ± 11.15N/kg. Soccer landed with a group mean of 455.21 ±18.36N/kg. Basketball had a lower RPLF with a group mean of 377.14 ± 27.43N/kg.
CONCLUSION: The findings in this study show that gymnasts and soccer athletes tend to land with more force compared to basketball athletes. High landing forces can have a large impact on the lower body, leading that athlete to be at a higher risk of injury.
