Journal article
Exploring the Justifications for Selecting a Drop Landing Task to Assess Injury Biomechanics: A Narrative Review and Analysis of Landings Performed by Female Netball Players
Sports Medicine, Vol.49(3), pp.385-395
2019
Abstract
When assessing biomechanics in a laboratory setting, task selection is critical to the production of accurate and meaningful data. The injury biomechanics of landing is commonly investigated in a laboratory setting using a drop landing task. However, why this task is so frequently chosen is unclear. Therefore, this narrative review aimed to (1) identify the justification/s provided within the published literature as to why a drop landing task was selected to investigate the injury biomechanics of landing in sport and (2) use current research evidence, supplemented by a new set of biomechanical data, to evaluate whether the justifications are supported. To achieve this, a comprehensive literature search using Scopus, PubMed, and SPORTDiscus online databases was conducted for studies that had collected biomechanical data relating to sport injuries using a drop landing task. In addition, kinematic and kinetic data were collected from female netball players during drop landings and maximum-effort countermovement jumps from the ground to grab a suspended ball. The literature search returned a total of 149 articles that were reviewed to determine the justification for selecting a drop landing task. Of these, 54% provided no explicit justification to explain why a drop landing task was chosen, and 15% stated it was selected because it had been used in previous research. Other reasons included that the drop landing provides high experimental control (16%), is a functional sports task (11%), and is a dynamic task (6%). Evidence in the literature suggests that the biomechanical data produced with drop landings may not be as externally valid as more sport-specific tasks. Biomechanical data showed that the drop landing may not control center of mass fall height any better than maximum-effort countermovement jumps from the ground. Further, the frequently used step-off technique to initiate drop landings resulted in kinematic and kinetic asymmetries between lower limbs, which would otherwise be symmetrical when performing a countermovement jump from the ground. Researchers should consider the limitations of a drop landing task and endeavor to improve the laboratory tasks used to collect biomechanical data to examine the injury biomechanics of landing.
Details
- Title
- Exploring the Justifications for Selecting a Drop Landing Task to Assess Injury Biomechanics: A Narrative Review and Analysis of Landings Performed by Female Netball Players
- Authors
- Tyler J Collings (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Health & Sport SciencesAdam D Gorman (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Health & Sport SciencesMax Stuelcken (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Health & Sport SciencesDaniel Mellifont (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Health & Sport SciencesMark Sayers (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Health & Sport Sciences
- Publication details
- Sports Medicine, Vol.49(3), pp.385-395
- Publisher
- Adis International Ltd.
- Date published
- 2019
- DOI
- 10.1007/s40279-018-01045-x
- ISSN
- 0112-1642; 0112-1642
- Organisation Unit
- School of Health - High Performance Sport; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Health and Sport Sciences - Legacy; School of Health - Sports & Exercise Science; School of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Legacy
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99451464002621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web Of Science research areas
- Sport Sciences