Poor Motor Coordination Elicits Altered Lower Limb Biomechanics in Young Football (Soccer) Players: Implications for Injury Prevention through Wearable Sensors

Abstract

Motor coordination and lower limb biomechanics are crucial aspects of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury prevention strategies in football. These two aspects have never been assessed together in real scenarios in the young population. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of motor coordination on lower limb biomechanics in young footballers during an on-the-pitch training. Eighteen juvenile football players (10 y ± 2 m) were enrolled. Each player performed a training drill with sport-specific movements (vertical jump, agility ladders, change of direction) and the Harre circuit test (HCT) to evaluate players’ motor coordination. Wearable inertial sensors (MTw Awinda, Xsens) were used to assess lower limb joint angles and accelerations. Based on the results of the HCT, players were divided into poorly coordinated (PC) and well-coordinated (WC) on the basis of the literature benchmark. The PC group showed a stiffer hip biomechanics strategy (up to 40% lower flexion angle, ES = 2.0) and higher internal-external hip rotation and knee valgus (p < 0.05). Significant biomechanical limb asymmetries were found only in the PC group for the knee joint (31–39% difference between dominant and non-dominant limb, ES 1.6–2.3). Poor motor coordination elicited altered hip and knee biomechanics during sport-specific dynamic movements. The monitoring of motor coordination and on-field biomechanics might enhance the targeted trainings for ACL injury prevention.

Wearables for Biomechanical Performance Optimization and Risk Assessment in Industrial and Sports Applications

“…Research found significant asymmetries were found in the poorly coordinated group of players where “poor motor coordination elicited altered hip and knee biomechanics during sport-specific dynamic movements. [ 71 ]” The value here is that, with knowledge of where the lower body asymmetries exist, customized workout and training regimens can be designed to strengthen and stabilize the deficient limb segments and joints aiding in coordination gain.…”

On-Field Biomechanical Assessment of High and Low Dive in Competitive 16-Year-Old Goalkeepers through Wearable Sensors and Principal Component Analysis

“…Future studies assessing the concurrent validity of a limited number of sensors against a full-body setup might provide valuable information and practical implications on this topic. Through a simplified setup, the adoption of quantitative assessment in an ecological environment might be broader and more user-friendly, as for other outdoor applications [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. The present study results might suggest that a limited number of sensors aiming to capture only hip, pelvis and trunk kinematics, specifically in the first part of the dive, might be necessary to explain most of the differences between PS and nPS dive techniques.…”

“…The assessment of diving characteristics through an ecological dynamics approach coupled with data dimensionality reduction might help to describe and quantify the biomechanical features associated with diving-side preferences. Previous studies investigated on-field biomechanics of outfield football players during sport-specific activities, such as agility tasks and side-games, and put movement characteristics (also extracted through PCA dimensionality reduction) in relation to players’ coordinative abilities, training load, fatigue, and lower-limb injury risk [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”

Predicting Coordination Variability of Selected Lower Extremity Couplings during a Cutting Movement: An Investigation of Deep Neural Networks with the LSTM Structure

“…Additionally, monitoring and adjusting the range of motion between joints effectively prevent sports injuries [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Collaboration between the hip, knee and ankle joints will promote dynamic stabilization and force generation in the legs, thereby optimizing the CM transition mechanism [ 26 ]. Unfortunately, previous researchers have overlooked the variability in the strategies and changes in movement patterns associated with CM [ 12 ].…”