Tennis – Australian Open – Women’s Doubles Final – Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova celebrate with the trophy after winning their final match against Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina and Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia REUTERS/Morgan Sette
Paper Title: The relationship between Landing Error Scoring System performance and injury in female collegiate athletes
Publication: International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy
Publication date: December 2021
INTRODUCTION
Lower limb musculoskeletal injuries are common in collegiate sport, especially in sports that require constant acceleration, deceleration, and rapid changes in direction. These injuries are prevalent in female athletes, who have higher severe time-loss injury rates than their male counterparts. These high injury rates have led researchers to develop assessment tools, such as the Landing Error Scoring System (LESS), to identify potentially modifiable intrinsic risk factors for lower limb injury. Identifying LESS item errors related to injury may be useful in injury prevention as practitioners can target specific abnormal movement patterns with equally specific intervention programs. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the association between LESS scores and lower limb injuries in female collegiate athletes.
METHODOLOGY
Before the competitive season, 116 female collegiate athletes completed LESS testing. The test involved standing on a 30cm high box and jumping forwards and vertically to land with both feet just past a designated mark located 90cm anterior to the box. Investigators used a modified LESS scoring rubric to score the test results. A higher LESS score suggests a greater number of landing errors or altered movement patterns during the performance of the jumping test. Investigators followed up with the athletes throughout one competitive season.
RESULTS AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
The LESS total score was not associated with an increased odds of lower limb injury. Therefore, practitioners should be cautious when using the LESS score as a stand-alone injury prediction tool. Also observed in this study was that uninjured athletes were more likely to have an error in lateral trunk movement at initial contact than their injured counterparts. Notably, trunk displacement during landing is a strong predictor of future lower limb injury. Therefore, future studies should examine the relationship between individual LESS scores and injury in different sporting populations, as these individual items may have clinical application in injury prevention models.
Experiencing pain is a fundamental biopsychosocial phenomenon. However, practitioners typically treat pain in isolation with little emphasis on psychological influence. Carl Bescoby explores the psychological impact of pain and discusses how psychologically informed practice may offer benefits to managing the whole pain experience throughout rehabilitation. Introduction It is common for athletes to experience pain when... MORE
Researchers obtain qualitative data through first-hand observation, interviews, questionnaires, and other non-numerical sources of information. Jason Tee explores how clinicians can utilize the qualitative data and the athlete’s voice to improve rehabilitation outcomes. Sports injury research is clinical, impartial, and objective. It reduces athlete injuries to numbers and figures, removing the stories of the athletes... MORE
An injury will, directly and indirectly, affect the entire kinetic chain. Therefore, practitioners should develop holistic clinical assessment and rehabilitation plans. Cameron Gill reviews the complex interplay between the hamstring injury and ACL rupture risk to aid clinical judgment and decision making. Over his first eight seasons, NBA sharpshooter Klay Thompson never missed more than... MORE
Artificial playing surfaces are contentious and remain a talking point in Sports and Exercise Medicine. Marianke van der Merwe uncovers the artificial surface injury risk and provides recommendations to mitigate the risk factors for athletes. Artificial turf was first introduced in the 1960s and has evolved significantly. There are three reasons for artificial turf. Firstly,... MORE
Menopause is the natural end of a female’s menstrual cycle and can have profound and diverse effects on women. Tracy Ward discusses how the female athlete can adapt and continue to train through the menopausal transition. Menopause is the natural end of a female’s menstrual cycle, and clinicians define it as 12 months after the... MORE
Groin pain remains a challenging sports injury to manage. The complex regional anatomy provides practitioners with the unenviable task of diagnosing and managing athletes with groin pain. However, a universal terminology and taxonomy would assist practitioners in diagnosing and managing these athletes through the return to play process. In part I, Candice MacMillan discusses the... MORE