Comparison of landing knee valgus angle between female basketball and football athletes: possible implications for anterior cruciate ligament and patellofemoral joint injury rates.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate landing strategies of female football and basketball athletes with relation to possible injury mechanisms and disparity in injury.

DESIGN: Descriptive laboratory study.

PARTICIPANTS: 52 female football players and 41 female basketball players.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Frontal plane projection angle (FPPA) was measured during the single leg land (SLL) and drop jump (DJ) screening tasks.

RESULTS: 2 × 2 × 2 mixed factorial ANOVA showed significant main effects were observed for sport, whilst significant interaction effects were seen between sport and task. Females in both sports exhibited significantly greater FPPA values during the SLL task than the DJ task (p < 0.001). Basketball players demonstrated significantly greater FPPA values during SLL than football players (p < 0.001), whilst no differences were found between sports in the DJ task (p = 0.328).

CONCLUSION: Female basketball players display greater FPPA values during unilateral landing tasks than female football players which may reflect the greater ACL injury occurrence in this population. Injury prevention programs in these athletes should incorporate unilateral deceleration and landing tasks and should consider the specific injury mechanisms in each sport.