title: Anticipatory postural adjustments during cutting manoeuvres in football and their consequences for knee injury risk.
abstract: Anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs), i.e. preparatory positioning of the head, the trunk and the foot, are essential to initiate cutting manoeuvres during football games. The aim of the present study was to determine how APA strategies during cutting manoeuvres are influenced by a reduction of the time available to prepare the movement. Thirteen football players performed different cutting tasks, with directions of cutting either known prior to the task or indicated by a light signal occurring 850, 600 or 500 ms before ground contact. With less time available to prepare the cutting manoeuvre, the head was less orientated towards the cutting direction (P = 0.033) and the trunk was even more rotated in the opposite direction (P = 0.002), while the foot placement was not significantly influenced. Moreover, the induced higher lateral trunk flexion correlated with the increased knee abduction moment (r = 0.41; P = 0.009). Increasing lateral trunk flexion is the main strategy used to successfully perform a cutting manoeuvre when less time is available to prepare the movement. However, higher lateral trunk flexion was associated with an increased knee abduction moment and therefore an increased knee injury risk. Reducing lateral trunk flexion during cutting manoeuvres should be part of training programs seeking the optimisation of APAs.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Sport and Sport Science , University of Freiburg , Freiburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mornieux
authors.forename: Dominic
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gehring
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fürst
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gollhofer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005528:Foot / Q000502:physiology; D006257:Head / Q000502:physiology; D006615:Hip / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007717:Knee / Q000502:physiology; D007718:Knee Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012916:Soccer / Q000293:injuries* / Q000502:physiology*; D060726:Torso / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: change of direction; head rotation; knee abduction moment; step width; trunk