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Category

Racquet Sports

Document Type

Paper

Abstract

Badminton players at all levels perform a variety of badminton specific jump-stroke movements during training and match play, which expose their knees to high loads during the subsequent landing phase. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the knee joint kinematics and kinetics of elite and recreational male badminton players during scissor-kick jump landings. Ten Danish national male badminton players and 10 recreational male badminton players completed a series of simulated scissor-kick jumps in a biomechanical laboratory. Three-dimensional knee joint angles and external joint moments were recorded for the non-racket leg during the landing phase. One-dimensional statistical parametric mapping was used to statistically compare the landing kinematics and kinetics of the knee for elite and recreational players. The landing phase was highly similar between groups and associated with high external knee abduction moments, particularly for the recreational players, which resemble those previously reported in sports specific single-leg landing situations with high ACL injury risk. The only significant difference observed between elite and recreational players were found in the push-off phase, where elite players generate more power from the muscles around the knee joint, through greater external adduction and inwards rotations moments, allowing them to accelerate significantly faster forward upon landing compared to recreational players. The high knee loads players experience during scissor-kick landings may contribute to the high incidence of knee injuries observed in both elite and recreational badminton.

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