Abstract
This study investigated how midsole hardness of basketball footwear affects lower extremity biomechanics and impacts perception in drop vertical jumps. Eighteen male basketball players performed drop vertical jumps from three heights (31 cm, 46 cm, 61 cm) in basketball shoes of different midsole hardness (50, 60 Asker C). Biomechanical variables of the lower extremity and subjective perception were measured. This study found a significant drop height effect on the lower extremity biomechanics (p < 0.05), with greater ground reaction forces, joint kinetics, and prelanding muscle activation levels observed at higher drop heights. Basketball shoes with a softer midsole led to higher forefoot peak force (p = 0.028) amid lower rearfoot peak force (p = 0.046), lower peak flexion moments at the ankle (p = 0.024) and hip joints (p = 0.029), and greater prelanding muscle activation in the rectus femoris (p = 0.042) and tibialis anterior (p = 0.043). It is concluded that changing midsole hardness within a commercially relevant range triggered a different prelanding muscle activation strategy and hence altered the magnitudes of ground reaction forces and joint loadings during landing. Subjectively, participants perceived higher landing impacts with greater drop heights, though the strength of the associations were weak.
Highlights
Performing landings and jumps successfully is an essential element in many sports such as basketball
All participants adopted a toe-heel landing strategy for double-legged vertical jumps (DVJs) performed from the middle (46 cm) and highest (61 cm) platforms, while some participants occasionally landed flatfooted from the lowest
While platform height had no effect on knee or hip kinematics, the ankle was increasingly plantarflexed at initial ground contact as drop height increased (p < 0.001), which was accompanied with a greater ankle ranges of motion (ROM) (p = 0.002)
Summary
Performing landings and jumps successfully is an essential element in many sports such as basketball. An observational analysis [1] reported that basketball players performed 70 landings in a typical game, wherein players landed from low jumps as frequently as from high jumps, depending on their positions. The peak vertical ground reaction forces (vGRF) experienced by players are several times that of body weight, and the forces increase with drop heights [2]. There are mixed findings as to whether lower body joint ranges of motion (ROM). Increased [3] or remained consistent [4] with increasing drop heights. Regarding the neuromuscular response at the lower extremity, higher drop heights induce higher muscle activation prior to landing as a preparation strategy [5,6]. Appropriate footwear design is one possible way to aid protecting basketball players from injuries [8,9,10]
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