Examination Of Landing Error Scoring System Scores For Division 1 Basketball Players

Abstract

The injuring of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the most prevalent sports related knee injuries to occur in athletics, specifically female athletes. PURPOSE: To examine differences in LESS (Landing Error Scoring System) scores between frontcourt and backcourt, male and female NCAA Division 1 basketball players and to measure any changes in LESS scores between the beginning and end of the season. METHODS: Participants were 24 Division 1 basketball athletes (10 females, 14 males). Participation for the initial LESS screen prior to the season was 24 participants, but only 15 completed the postseason LESS screen (12 males, 3 females). These losses in participants were due to team departures, injuries, and NCAA restrictions on team activities post season. They completed a LESS screen (three consecutive jumps per screen) while being filmed in the frontal and sagittal plane and these videos were analyzed using a visual analysis computer system (Dartfish). The clinician examined the torso, feet, knees, and hips in the frontal and sagittal plane and assigned the athlete a score based on the landing performance. Athletes who scored above five points indicated an increased risk for an ACL injury. These screens were scored by a researcher using the LESS scoring sheet determined by Padua and then analyzed using an ANOVA 2x2 repeated measures test in SPSS to test for statistical significance. Statistical results were considered significant if they had a p-value ≤ .05. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant difference in LESS scores between position (p=0.650) or gender (p=0.904), but there was a significant decrease in preseason LESS scores versus postseason LESS scores for men and women (p ≤ 0.001). Preseason men LESS scores averaged 6.30 ± 1.31 and women averaged 6.38 ± 1.63. Postseason LESS scores for men averaged 5.47 ± 1.09 and women averaged 6.44 ± 0.84. CONCLUSIONS: This sample of Division 1 basketball athletes’ LESS scores did not seem to differ based on gender or position which could conclude that the athletes training regiments may be similar to each other and not determined by ACL risk, gender, or positions. The significant decrease in preseason LESS scores to postseason LESS scores could be attributed to the similar training regiments.