Influence of gender on hip and knee mechanics during a randomly cued cutting maneuver.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate gender differences in three-dimensional hip and knee joint mechanics in collegiate athletes during a randomly cued cutting maneuver.

DESIGN: Three-dimensional kinematics and kinetics were collected on 24 collegiate soccer players (12 females and 12 males) while each performed the cutting maneuver. In order to create a randomly cued condition, subjects were signaled by a lighted target board that directed them to perform one of three tasks. Hip and knee joint mechanics were compared between genders using one-tailed t-tests.

BACKGROUND: Female athletes have an anterior cruciate ligament injury rate that is larger than their male counterparts. Gender differences in hip and knee joint mechanics during a randomly cued cutting maneuver have not been previously reported.

METHODS: Five randomly cued cutting trials were included in the analysis. Selected peak hip and knee joint angles and moments were measured during the first 40 degrees of knee flexion across the stance phase.

RESULTS: Females demonstrated significantly less peak hip abduction than did males. Otherwise, there were no gender differences in selected peak hip and knee joint kinematics and moments.

CONCLUSIONS: Male and female collegiate soccer players demonstrate similar hip and knee joint mechanics while performing a randomly cued cutting maneuver.

RELEVANCE: Because it is known that females incur a greater number of anterior cruciate ligament injuries than males, it is of interest to identify gender differences in lower extremity mechanics when performing sport specific tasks. Understanding of these differences will contribute to the development of prevention training programs.