The effect of hip and knee biomechanics on anterior cruciate ligament injuries during different landing types in adolesencent female basketball players

The aim of this study, which is conducted on adolescent female basketball players (n=14), is to minimize the risk of injury by revealing the relationships between different components of the landing phase, improving the biomechanical evaluation after injuries and operations, determining the inadequacies in specific joint kinematics on evaluations before game seasons and rehabilitation, and making better choices in exercise programming. The anthropometric measurements, marker placements (Xsens MVN Awinda), and hip and knee strength tests on isokinetic dynamometer were performed on the participants, respectively. After the markers were placed, the participants randomly performed three different landing types using a 30 cm tall platform. The first landing was performed over the platform, the second consisted landing along with a jog 10 meters behind the platform, and in the third, the landing was performed 10 meters behind the platform. Afterward, the knee flexion/extension, hip flexion/extension, hip abduction/adduction, and hip internal/external rotation strength tests were performed with an isokinetic dynamometer at 60 °/sec speed. The results were statistically analyzed using IBM SPSS 25 package program and 0.05 was determined as the significance level. Statistically significant differences were found in sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes between the three landings in kinematic analyses. According to our findings, additional tasks to isolated landings during the landing phase can change hip and knee kinematics. Jogging at a certain speed or performing basketball-specific movement patterns (throwing or catching the ball, etc.), could affect hip and knee kinematics. Although different components of landings affect the knee and hip kinematics, the number of studies that investigate the relationship between anthropometric data and kinematic data, and isokinetic measurements and kinematic analysis should be increased. Additionally, we suggest that the sports-specific development and modification of tests that include jump styles that are used for return to sport phase or rehabilitation purposes may contribute to both the reliability of the test and the quality of sports-specific jump training. Keywords: Anterior cruciate ligament, biomechanics, kinematic, adolescent basketball player, strenght