Comparison of Plantar Dynamics During Four Sports Gestures in Rugby Players

Background: 

Four of the most relevant gestures in rugby (RU) are the pass, the tackle, the line out, and the scrum. RU is the third most common contact sport on the planet, and being a fast-paced collision game and carries a high risk of injury.
Objectives. To describe and compare plantar dynamics during four sports gestures in rugby players through speed, strength, and balance.

Methods:

Twenty-five male RU players were included who repeated four gestures three times using Moticon’s OpenGo sensor templates to assess seeding dynamics throughout the gestures. The data was stored in Microsoft Excel. An average of three gestures was calculated and used for statistical exploration using Wilcoxon and Friedman.

Results:

The four gestures’ highest mean total force (MTF) was on the left foot. On the right foot, the center of pressure (COP) tended to travel faster, and the COP stroke length was primarily larger on this foot. The line-out has generally been the gesture in which the foot had the greatest MTF, and the tackle and scrum were the gestures in which the COP moved the fastest and with the longest stroke length.

Conclusion:

The line out, in general, was the gesture in which the foot had the highest MTF. This pressure was predominantly concentrated in the posterior and medial parts of the left foot, and the tackle and the pass were the gestures in which the COP traveled with more velocity and with a longer trace length, especially in the right foot.