Here, we present a protocol to evaluate the differences in injury mechanisms between professional and amateur players when performing a badminton maximal right lunge movement by analyzing lower limb kinematics.
Under the condition of simulating a badminton court in the laboratory, this study used the injury mechanism model to analyze the maximal right lunge movements of eight professional badminton players and eight amateur players. The purpose of this protocol is to study the differences in kinematics and joint moment of the right knee and ankle. A motion capture system and force plate were used to capture data of the joint movements of the lower extremity and the vertical ground reaction force (vGRF). Sixteen young men who did not have any sports injuries in the past 6 months took part in the study. The subjects performed a maximal right lunge from the start position with their right foot, stepping on and fully contacting with the force plate, hit the shuttlecock with an underhand stroke to the designated position in the backcourt, and then returned to the start/end position. All subjects wore the same badminton shoes to avoid a difference in impact from different badminton shoes. The amateur players showed a greater range of ankle movement and reverse joint moment on the frontal plane, and a larger internal joint rotation moment on the horizontal plane. The professional badminton players exhibited greater knee moment on the sagittal and frontal planes. Therefore, these factors should be considered in the development of the training program to reduce the risk of sports injuries in knee and ankle joints. This study simulates the real badminton court and calibrates the range of activities of each movement of the subjects so that the subjects complete the experimental action in a natural state with high quality. A limitation of this study is that it does not combine joint load and muscle activity. Another limitation is that the sample size is small and should be expanded in future studies. This research method can be applied to the lower limb biomechanical research of other footwork in the badminton project.
Badminton has always been one of the most popular sports in the world. In a game, the frequency of performing lunges is relatively high1. It is of vital importance to master the ability to quickly perform a lunge and return to the start position or move in the other direction2. The lunge not only is crucial to badminton but also is of great importance to tennis, table tennis, and other sports.
The forward lunge has been taken as a function evaluation method for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficiency and knee stability3,4. Studies show that badminton players need both high muscular strength and professional techniques. In general, amateur players pay more attention to technical training than to muscular strength training. If an individual of low-strength ability takes a low-quality training, the training time becomes longer, therefore leading to an overload of the lower limbs and even to a sports injury.
High-intensity training results in a large load on the lower limbs, which may be the cause of sports injuries5. Lower limb injuries account for 60% of the total number of injuries. For both male and female badminton players, the knee and the foot are the most vulnerable parts6,7,8,9. Kinetic data analysis can be used to explain the lower limb injuries of players at different levels. It was reported that professional badminton players have considerable intratendinous flow which rises after repetitive load movements, especially in the patella tendon of the dominant leg.
Reports show that previously conducted research on racquet sports mainly assessed kinematic parameters but focused less on kinetics2,10. When a professional player has played a competition, the pressure is concentrated in their Achilles tendon and anterior knee tendons, especially in the dominant lunge leg5. In racquet sports, clinical analyses of injuries mainly focused on the lower limb, which exceeded 58%, specifically on the knee and ankle5,8,10,11,12,13.
Previous studies have evaluated the physiological indicators of badminton14,15,16 and the features of physical abilities17,18,19,20. Due to these basic features, basic actions on the agility of badminton are proposed to improve the training effect and the on-the-spot performance of the players21,22. Previous studies on badminton focused on different movements or directions of lunge movement without comparing the movement characteristics between professional and amateur badminton players23,24,25,26,27. These differences in dynamics and joint movement make them susceptible to different mechanisms of sports injuries.
The aim of this study is to study the differences in kinematics and dynamics between professional badminton players and amateur badminton players, as well as the range of movement (ROM) of the dominant leg. It is assumed that professional and amateur badminton players show differences in the right forward lunge and that a greater ROM increases the risk of sports injuries.
The experiment was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Sports Science in Ningbo University. All the participants have signed written consents and were told about the requirements and process of the lunge experiment.
1. Gait Laboratory Preparation
2. Subject Preparation
3. Static Calibration
4. Dynamic Trials
5. Postprocessing
6. Data Analysis
7. Statistical Analysis
Figure 2 shows the mean vGRF of phases I, II, III, and IV (i.e., the initial impact peak, secondary impact peak, weight acceptance, and drive-off phases, respectively) of the professional players and the amateur players when they performed a lunge. There is no significant difference in phases I, II, and III. However, the vGRF of the professional players is markedly higher than that of the amateur players, indicating a significant difference (Figure 2).
Figure 3 shows the three-dimensional planes of the right knee and the ankle of the professional players and the amateur players when they stand. Results from independent t-tests reveal the difference between the professional players and the amateur players in the ROM of the ankle, with professional players showing a greater ROM in the dorsiflexion/plantar flexion on the sagittal plane. The ankle shows a significant difference on the frontal and horizontal plane. The amateur players present a greater ROM in the inversion/eversion movement on the frontal plane, but a smaller ROM in the external/internal rotation movement on the horizontal plane. The knee indicates a significant difference between the professional players and the amateur players in the external/internal rotation movement on the horizontal plane. The professional players display a larger ROM in the flexion/extension on the sagittal plane and in the abduction/adduction on the frontal plane.
Figure 4 shows the three-dimensional planes of the players' ankle moments. The amateur players present a smaller plantar flexion moment or a greater dorsiflexion moment in the four phases when performing a lunge. The professional players reveal a greater eversion moment in the weight acceptance phase when performing a lunge, which shows a significant difference, and they have a smaller internal rotation moment or greater external rotation moment in the drive-off phase when performing a lunge. Figure 5 illustrates the knee moments. The professional players show a greater extension moment in the secondary impact peak phase, indicating a significant difference, and a greater abduction moment in the initial impact peak.
Figure 1: Experimental protocol. The right foot naturally steps on and fully contacts with the force plate during the trial. (A) This indicates the start/stop position. (B) This indicates the landing position. (C) This indicates the shuttlecock landing area. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 2: Illustration of the mean vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) (with standard deviation) pattern of badminton players in the stance of the lunge. There is a significant difference between the professional and amateur players in phase III. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 3: The ROMs of ankle and knee joints of the professional players and amateur players on sagittal, frontal, and horizontal planes. (A) This panel shows the results of the sagittal planes. (B) This panel shows the results of the frontal planes.(C) This panel shows the results of the horizontal planes. The error bars indicate standard deviation. The * indicates the significance level p < 0 05. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 4: The mean values of the ankle joint moment of the landing posture of the professional players and amateur players on sagittal (plantar flexion/dorsiflexion), frontal (eversion/inversion), and horizontal (internal/external rotation) planes. The * indicates significance level p < 0.05. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 5: The mean values of the knee joint moment of the landing posture of professional players and amateur players on sagittal (extension/flexion), frontal (abduction/adduction), and horizontal (internal rotation) planes. The * indicates significance level p < 0.05. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
One of the disadvantages of most studies analyzing the biomechanical characteristics of the badminton lunging step is that they ignore the skill level of the badminton players performing the lunge. This study divides the subjects into professional players and amateur players to explore the differences in joint ROM and joint moment at different levels when performing a right forward lunge.
As for the ankle joint ROM on the frontal plane, the amateur players exhibited greater ROM than the professional players, indicating a significant difference, which may be related to the muscle strength of the ankle joint28. As for the ankle joint moment on the frontal plane, the professional players revealed a greater eversion moment in the weight acceptance phase, showing a significant difference with the amateur players, which may be related to the risk of ankle injury29. The amateur players showed a smaller ankle eversion moment, which may result from the poor lunge landing posture of the dominant leg. It is beneficial for training guidance and ankle rehabilitation. The professional players have a greater ankle moment in plantar flexion/dorsiflexion on the sagittal plane. In addition, the amateur players showed a greater internal rotation moment than the professional players, indicating a significant difference and showing different stability mechanisms of the ankle.
Given the difference in lunge landing posture between the professional players and the amateur players, the vGRF pattern can be divided into four phases, namely impact peak, secondary impact peak, weight acceptance, and drive-off (Figure 2). The difference in vGRF between the professional players and the amateur players found in the fourth stage may be due to the fact that elite badminton players have stronger knee extensors30.
A common goal of competitive sports is to reduce sports injuries so as to extend the athlete's athletic life. For amateur athletes, it is recommended to develop a comprehensive and reasonable training plan to standardize the correct technical movements, especially to reduce the damage caused by a wrong landing posture31. For professional athletes, the joint's load capacity should be considered, and the related protective gear and special sports equipment for athletes can be used to reduce ligament damage32,33.
The results rely on a great many important steps in the protocol. First, it is necessary to remove other reflective items in the experimental environment, to avoid their effect on camera identification, and to ensure reasonable fluorescent light in the experimental environment. Second, it is critical to adjust the camera parameters to a reasonable range for the accuracy of motion capture during the experiment. Third, it is of vital importance to identify anatomical landmarks, accurately attach the markers to the landmarks, and pay attention to whether the markers are shifted or dropped and promptly reattach them properly. Fourth, it is crucial to calibrate the force plate to its zero level before each dynamic capture. Another key step in the experiment is the data postprocessing. One of the limitations of this study is that the sample size is small, and it should be expanded in future studies. Another limitation is that it did not collect the lower-extremity muscle activities of the professional and the amateur badminton players during the lunge experiment when explaining the results of this study. Muscle activation and strength count a lot in explicating the differences between professional and amateur badminton players. Future studies should assess different movement features of players with skills of different levels, combining joint load and muscle activity.
The results of this study indicate that there exist different risks of injury between professional and amateur badminton players. Amateur badminton players should consider these differences when developing training programs and injury prevention strategies to reduce potential damage to the ankle and knee.
The authors have nothing to disclose.
This study was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81772423), the K. C. Wong Magna Fund of Ningbo University, and the National Social Science Foundation of China (16BTY085).
Motion Tracking Cameras | Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK | n= 8 | |
Valid Dongle | Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK | Vicon Nexus 1.4.116 | |
Force Platform Amplifier | Kistler, Switzerland | n=1 | |
Force Platform | Kistler, Switzerland | n=1 | |
Vicon Datastation ADC | Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK | – | |
T-Frame | Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK | – | – |
14 mm Diameter Passive Retro-reflective Marker | Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK | n=16 | |
Double Adhesive Tape | Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK | For fixing markers to skin | |
Badmionton racket | Li-ning, China | BADMINTON RACKET CLUB PLAY BLADE 1000 [AYPL186-4] |
MATERIAL: Standard Grade Carbon Fiber WEIGHT: 81-84 grams OVERALL LENGTH: 675mm GRIP LENGTH: 200mm BALANCE POINT: 295mm TENSION: Vertical 20-24 lbs, Horizontal 22-26 lbs |