Effects of Athletic Floor Surfaces on Cutting and Jumping Ground Reaction Forces in Female Athletes

Abstract

PURPOSE: To assess ground reaction forces in female athletes performing sport-specific movements (drop vertical jump and cut) on two athletic flooring surfaces: Smartcells® [SM] and Sport Court® [SP], as compared with a control [CO] surface. METHODS: After providing informed consent, sixteen NCAA female athletes (age 20±1.3 yrs; height 175.8±7.3 cm; weight 71.5±7.1 kg) were instrumented with a standard lower extremity plug-in-gait marker set, after which ground reaction forces were assessed during performance of two movement types (drop vertical jump and 45 degree cut) on each surface using a 6 camera MOCAP system (Vicon, Denver, CO, USA) and two force platforms (AMTI, Watertown, MA, USA). Test order was randomized. Subjects performed 3 successful trials for each movement on each surface. Data were normalized by participant weight before comparison via paired t tests (p<0.05) between conditions for right-side peak and mean medial/lateral [ML], anterior/posterior [AP], and vertical [VERT] ground reaction forces [GRF]. RESULTS: During cutting, peak ML GRF for SM (42.62±15.31 N.kg-1) and SP (41.11±12.32 N.kg-1) were reduced as compared with CO (51.99±13.25 N.kg-1) (p=0.039 and p=0.002, respectively). Mean ML GRF for SM (4.14±4.28 N.kg-1) and SP (3.81±3.76 N.kg-1) were also reduced as compared with CO (6.58±5.18 N.kg-1) during cutting movements (p=0.009 and p=0.004, respectively). During drop vertical jump performance, mean AP GRF for both SM (-1.88±0.90 N.kg-1) and SP (-1.13±0.52 N.kg-1) were reduced as compared with CO (-4.02±1.33 N.kg-1) (p<0.0001 & p<0.0001, respectively). Peak ML GRF for SM (25.09±4.43 N.kg-1) was less than both CO (32.70±8.45 N.kg-1) (p=0.0009) and SP (29.67±5.36 N.kg-1) (p=0.0008). Mean ML GRF for SM (1.71±.33 N.kg-1) was less than CO (2.04±0.40 N.kg-1) (p=0.0012). Mean AP GRF for SP (-1.13±0.52) was reduced compared to SM (-1.88±0.90) (p=0.0011). A trend for peak VERT GRF between SM (151.99±5.28 N.kg-1) and both CO (156.91±10.71 N.kg-1) and SP (156.52±8.53 N.kg-1) during drop vertical jump was noted. CONCLUSION: SP and SM athletic flooring may reduce selected peak and mean GRF. SM mitigated GRF to a greater extent. Data trends also demonstrated reductions in VERT GRF during drop vertical jump for SM that may be further elucidated with a greater sample size in future efforts.