The effect of leg dominance on lower limb kinematics during a 180° pivot maneuver in healthy female soccer players at three different stages of physical maturation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of leg dominance on lower limb kinematics during a 180° pivot maneuver in healthy female soccer players at three different stages of maturation: pre-pubertal, pubertal, and post-pubertal. Twenty-seven athletes of four female soccer teams (Under 10, 12, 14, and 18 year old teams) were recruited from the Lakehead Express Soccer Club in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. The modified Pubertal Maturation Observation Scale (PMOS) was used to classify nine participants into each maturational group: pre-pubertal (10.3 ± 1.1 years), pubertal (12 ± 1.4 years), or post-pubertal (14.8 ± 2.0 years). Testing involved the completion of a short maximal effort sprint coupled with a pivoting turn. This included a 3.5 m acceleration starting from a stationary position, immediately followed by a 180° pivot maneuver with either their dominant or non-dominant leg, and another 3.5 m acceleration towards and through the starting position. Trials were recorded using two Basler high-speed digital video cameras and timed using a wireless timing gate system. The angles of knee flexion, hip flexion, thigh and shank rotations, and hip abduction/adduction were evaluated at initial contact (IC), maximum knee flexion (MKF), and toe-off (TO) during the 180° pivot maneuver. To assess the interaction effects for each of the dependent variables, 2 (leg dominance) x 3 (maturation stage) x 3 (instants) factorial ANOVAs were used. Two significant interaction effects were observed between the post-pubertal and the pubertal groups for shank rotation angle. The post-pubertal group had a greater shank internal rotation angle with the nondominant leg at both MKF and TO. In addition, there were significant main effects for knee and hip flexion angles, hip adduction/abduction angle, and thigh and shank rotation angles among instants. Although not statistically significant, there were noteworthy, practically important trends observed in the data. The dominant leg had smaller knee flexion angles at each event within each group, smaller hip flexion angles within the post-pubertal group at IC and MKF and within the pubertal group, as well as larger adduction angles at MKF and TO within each group. Furthermore, the post-pubertal group had the largest peak hip abduction angles and hip flexion angles at IC when isolating on the dominant leg. The results of this study suggest that postpubertal females pivoting with their dominant leg perform kinematic patterns that may lead to a greater risk for an ACL in jury during a 180° pivot maneuver as compared to less mature players on the non-dominant leg. The use of the FIFA 11+ Warm-up Manual Part 1: Running Exercises by all participants in this study may have implications for the training of female soccer players, as statistically significant maturational differences were not observed.