Landing mechanics of basketball and volleyball athletes: a kinematic approach

Purpose
Single-leg landing is frequent in basketball and volleyball, two sports with high incidence of anterior cruciate ligament injuries. The similarity in the number of landings between these sports could be the culprit of the high incidence of injuries. However, the comparison of knee joint motion during landings in both sports has yet to be investigated. This study aimed to contrast the knee kinematics of basketball and volleyball athletes during a single-leg landing task.

Methods
Overall, 10 male athletes, 5 in basketball (181.4 ± 6.7 cm; 93.21 ± 33.06 kg) and 5 in volleyball (178.4 ± 6.6 cm, 79.11 ± 6.46 kg) performed single-leg drop landings. Differences between the groups were verified with the superposition of 95% confidence intervals. Additionally, the probability approach was applied with magnitude-based inferential statistics calculated to compare individual instants (40 ms after the initial ground contact, maximum flexion, and abduction).

Results
Different knee movement patterns were detected between the groups. While volleyball athletes showed greater knee flexion, basketball players exhibited greater knee abduction. The magnitude-based inference also demonstrated that volleyball athletes presented higher values in the sagittal plane.

Conclusions
Basketball athletes exhibited greater valgus in the instants before and after ground contact. In addition, volleyball athletes showed greater knee flexion during the single-leg drop landing.