Serial Movement Assessment in Collegiate Athletes Who Perform Injury Prevention Training

Overview

Athletic injury can result in decreased athletic performance or removal from sport participation. There may also be psychological and financial impacts of athletic injury. Additionally, there can be long-term consequences, such as increased risk of subsequent injury or arthritis. Therefore, determining ways to prevent athletic injury from occurring is critical. Movement quality during sport is related to injury risk. Athletes who move poorly are generally at increased risk of injury compared to athletes who move well. Movement quality can be improved through exercise-based injury prevention training, thereby decreasing injury risk. This purposed of this study is to evaluate movement quality multiple times over the course of an athletic season in collegiate athletes who perform injury prevention training. The hypothesis is that movement quality will improve over the course of an athletic season.

Neuromuscular control, or quality of movement, during sport is related to injury risk. Athletes who move poorly are generally at increased risk of injury compared to athletes who move well. Neuromuscular control can be improved through exercise-based injury prevention training (called preventive training programs, or PTPs), thereby decreasing injury risk. Neuromuscular control is dynamic and therefore should be evaluated regularly; however, no study has serially evaluated neuromuscular control in athletes who perform PTPs. The overall objective of the proposed study is to longitudinally evaluate multiple aspects of neuromuscular control (i.e., movement quality, balance) across several time points during a single athletic season in collegiate athletes who perform PTPs. Therefore, two specific aims are proposed: Specific Aim 1: Evaluate neuromuscular control at multiple time points during an athletic season in collegiate athletes who perform PTPs. Specific Aim 2: Evaluate multiple measures of neuromuscular control over the course of an athletic season in collegiate athletes who perform PTPs. A field-based, experimental, cohort study will be used to address both specific aims. Subjects will be recruited from NCAA-Division III men's and women's soccer, volleyball and basketball teams. Neuromuscular control will be assessed four times during the athletic season using the Landing Error Scoring System (LESS), the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS), and the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT). The LESS evaluates movement quality, while the BESS and the SEBT evaluate static and dynamic balance, respectively. Subjects will perform PTPs for about 10 minutes/day, at least 4 days/week.