Screening of Functional Movement Pattern and Balance of Professional Athletes with the Aim ‎of Preventing Sport Injuries

Functional movements and balance are necessary requirements in many sports. However, there is little information about defects in functional movements and balance in professional athletes in different sports. The purpose of this study was to screen the functional movement patterns and balance in professional athletes with the aim of preventing sports injuries.This was a cross-sectional causal-comparative study. Among the active sports in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, nine sports, including wrestling, basketball, wushu, badminton, judo, rock climbing, taekwondo, football, and volleyball (n=20 athletes in each sport), were randomly selected, and the professional athletes according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria were evaluated. In order to evaluate movement defects, three functional patterns, including the overhead squat, overhead squat with heel lift, and single leg squat, were used based on the Fusionetics scoring system. Balance was also evaluated using the Y balance test. Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon tests were used to compare the scores of different sports fields in the evaluation of functional movement patterns and balance (p<0.05).The results showed that professional athletes in different sports showed good performance in squat and balance functional tests (75-100%), and in general, the risk of injuries in athletes was low. Nevertheless, significant differences were observed in the scores of functional tests and dynamic posture control in some sports fields, which indicated the presence of injury-prone athletes in different sports teams (p<0.05).From the findings of this research, it can be concluded that professional athletes had good scores in general, but they may have defects in functional movement pattern and balance, which make athletes prone to injury. Therefore, it is recommended that the trainers of sports teams and clubs continuously use injury prediction tests such as functional movement patterns and dynamic posture control in order to evaluate and screen their athletes.