Relationships between Racket Arm Joint Moments and Racket Head Speed during the Badminton Jump Smash Performed by Elite Male Malaysian Players

Abstract

Three-dimensional position data of nineteen elite male Malaysian badminton players performing a series of maximal jump smashes were collected using a motion capture system. A ‘resultant moments’ inverse dynamics analysis was performed on the racket arm joints (shoulder, elbow and wrist). Relationships between racket head speed and peak joint moments were quantified using correlational analyses, inclusive of a Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple-hypothesis testing. The racket head centre speed at racket–shuttlecock contact was, on average, 61.2 m/s with a peak of 68.5 m/s which equated to average shuttlecock speeds of 95.2 m/s with a peak of 105.0 m/s. The correlational analysis revealed that a larger shoulder internal rotation moment (r = 0.737), backwards shoulder plane of elevation moment (r = 0.614) and wrist extension moment (r = −0.564) were associated with greater racket head centre speed at racket–shuttlecock contact. Coaches should consider strengthening the musculature associated with shoulder internal rotation, plane of elevation and wrist extension. This work provides a unique analysis of the joint moments of the racket arm during the badminton jump smash performed by an elite population and highlights significant relationships between racket head speed and peak resultant joint moments.

A Systematic Review of the Biomechanical Studies on Shoulder Kinematics in Overhead Sporting Motions: Types of Analysis and Approaches

“…Thirty-five percent of the studies reviewed used inverse kinematics to obtain the force data at the joints of interest in order to investigate the indicators that lead to higher movement speed and performance [8,10,18,23,34,42,45,[49][50][51] and/or to examine the amount of forces incurred from the joints when executing the tasks from an injury risk perspective [23,41,42,45,59]. For example, [10] identified greater shoulder internal rotation moment as a strong predictor of higher racket head speed (r = 0.737); this was supported by [45] who found greater shoulder internal rotation moment in the skilled vs. novice players (p = 0.016).…”

“…However, little is known about the shoulders and upper limbs [33] and to the best of the authors' knowledge, almost all shoulder and upper limbs musculoskeletal modeling studies have a clinical context. Existing studies normally report external moments obtained through kinetic analysis to reflect joint loading [29,34,35]. The findings are limited as intrinsic forces such as muscle forces are not accounted for and therefore the calculated external joint moments do not necessarily represent the actual mechanical burdens imposed on the articular interfaces [36,37].…”