Comparison of Jumping-Landing Mechanics of Elite Handball and Wrestling Athletes

Abstract

Background. Examining and detecting the causes of injuries offers important contributions to athletes. Identifying the risk of non-contact injury in athletes and then directing them to preventive exercise programs may be beneficial for athlete health. Purpose. This research aims to compare the jump-landing mechanics of elite handball and wrestling athletes. Material and Methods. This research aims to compare the jump-landing mechanics of elite handball and wrestling athletes. In research in Bolu and Yalova provinces, 10 handballers in the 1st league(age 17.60±1.43 height 180.30±7.05 kilos 76.40±5.29) and 15 wrestlers on the national team(age 25.87±3.18 height 178.67±8.64 kilos. 77.13±14.16) , a total of 25 , male athletes volunteered. The Landing Error Scoring System (LESS) test protocol was applied to the athletes after the jump. Descriptive statistics of the athletes were made, and the Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine the normal distribution of the groups. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare handball and wrestling athletes. Results. There was no difference between the LESS scores of handball and wrestling athletes (p > 0.05). Compared with the athletes’ LESS assessments, significant differences were found in knee flexion angle at first contact, ankle plantar flexion scores at the point of contact, and knee valence displacement in the position of the thumb of the knee (p < 0.05). Conclusions. In this study, which was conducted to determine the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) risk level, there is no statistical difference between the LESS scores of wrestling and handball athletes. Despite this, the total LESS scores of wrestling athletes were found to be lower compared to handball athletes. This shows that the probability of injury is lower in terms of LESS score scoring. The fact that the result came out this way showed that the wrestlers who participated in our study had better lower extremities.