Comparison of Landing Kinematics of Athletes male with Flat and Natural Foot by Using Landing Error Scoring System and Tuck Jump

Nowadays, knowing the kinematic changes of lower limb joint angles in jump-landing tasks can provide useful information to prevent lower limb injuries in people with flat foot. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the kinematics of landing of athletes with flat and natural soles using landing error scoring system.

In the present study, 26 male athletes with flat foot and 26 male athletes with normal arch of the foot participated. The arch of the foot was measured by using the staheli index. Based on this index, values of 0.89> SI > 0.53 as normal foot and SI > 0.89 as flatfoot were evaluated and quantified. Kinematic data were recorded using motion capture cameras. The test used in the present study was landing error scoring system. Independent t-test was used to evaluate the mean difference in dependent variables between the two groups of healthy and flat-footed anomalies and Shapiro-Wilk test was used to evaluate the normality of the distribution of variables. All statistical tests were performed by SPSS software version 20 at 95% confidence interval with P value less than or equal to 0.05.

The results of the present study showed that there is a significant difference between the research groups in the jump-landing test (LESS) in that the flat-bottomed group showed higher scores (poorer performance) than the normal arch of the foot group(P> 0.05).

Based on the results of the jump-landing test (LESS), it can be concluded that changes in the position of the arch of the foot and therefore in the alignment of the body, probably affect the angles of the lower limb joints during daily activities and sports, which can change the pattern of damage.