Do the landing mechanics of experienced netball players differ from those of trained athletes competing in sports that do not require frequent landings?

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined whether young (15–19 years old) high-performance netball players exhibit different landing mechanics compared to female controls who do not participate in sports requiring frequent landings. Design: Comparative, cross-sectional. Methods: Lower limb kinematics and kinetics from 23 youth high performance female netball players (age: 17.5 ± 1.7 years, height: 1.77 ± 0.06 m, mass: 66.5 ± 6.33 kg, netball experience: 8.5 ± 2.3 years) were compared to data from 23 females (age: 22.0 ± 3.2 years, height: 1.70 ± 0.05 m, mass: 64.4 ± 6.7 kg) who were involved in competitive sport, but had minimal experience playing a jump-landing sport. The jump landing task required participants to perform a countermovement jump and grab a netball suspended at 85% of the participant's maximum jump height. On random trials the ball was raised rapidly to 100% maximum jump height as the participant initiated her jump. Results: The netball group landed with significantly less contribution from the knee extensors to total work for the non-preferred leg (P < 0.001, ds = 1.10) than the inexperienced group. Although no other significant differences were found between groups, there were several small to moderate differences in several of the key biomechanical variables identified as being risk factors for ACL injury or associated with ACL strain. Conclusions: Both groups had similar knee valgus and internal rotation angles and moments, with nearly all participants presenting with relatively poor frontal plane knee control. Overall, results suggest that experience playing a netball may not be enough to develop low-risk landing mechanics.