In the present study, experienced and novice volleyball players’ landing kinematics and kinetics during block and spike jump-landings were compared. As hypothesized, volleyball experience influenced the landing strategy used by the participants during both jump-landing tasks. However, the change in kinematics was not observed for all joints of the lower limb and was related to the jump-landing task performed. The only main effect of volleyball experience observed was the increase in ankle dorsiflexion range of motion in the experienced group compared to the novice group. This increase is probably related to a more forefoot approach used by the experienced players during initial foot-ground contact, especially during the landing of the spike jump. A forefoot approach allowed larger dorsiflexion range of motion which likely delayed the heel strike and prolonged the time to the vertical peak force by using the range of motion the ankle joint [22, 23]. In this way, the eccentric work of the ankle plantarflexor muscles may contribute more to the reduction of GRF parameters during a forefoot approach with a large foot floor angle compared to a compared to a smaller angle [24]. Based on our data, it seems that the experienced group used the ankle joint more effectively to better attenuate the vertical GRF compared to the novice group. This result could be used to selectively target the ankle joint in learning exercises for novice volleyball players.
There are several interactions between the experience of the volleyball players and the jump-landing task performed. First, the experienced volleyball players landed with more plantarflexion at initial contact and larger ankle dorsiflexion range of motion of during the spike jump but not during the block compared to novices. The data distribution indicated that the foot landing pattern used by the experienced group was more consistent than the one used by the novice group (Fig. 4). During the spike jump, most experienced and some novice volleyball players landed on their forefoot with the ankle plantarflexed. However, other novices landed on their midfoot or rearfoot with less ankle plantarflexion. These results suggested that two foot strike patterns were used by novices during spike jump: forefoot and midfoot/rearfoot. Forefoot landing is defined as the first foot-ground contact with the front part of the foot and the rearfoot and midfoot landing correspond to a rear foot and a flat foot contact, respectively. During the block jump, both experienced and novice players landed with a forefoot strategy. Experienced volleyball players appear to use an appropriate foot landing strategy to reduce the risk of ACL injury regardless of the type of jump performed [11]. However, novice players appear to use an appropriate foot landing strategy only during the block jump, and some novices seem to use a high-risk foot landing strategy during the spike jump. Landing with a forefoot strategy after a spike jump may seem counterintuitive to these novice players. The modification of the foot landing strategy may be caused by the forward component found only in the smash jump. Indeed, the aerial phase of the block jump was only on vertical direction and the aerial phase of the spike jump was on both vertical and forward directions. The landing phase of the spike jump can also be considered a breaking phase of the forward component that may facilitate a rear foot or a flat foot contact with the ground in novice players.
In addition, the results revealed that the experienced volleyball players had a larger knee flexion range of motion during the block jump but not during the spike jump. Larger lower limb ranges of motion, particularly at the knee joint, has been reported to decrease the peak vertical peak ground reaction force and prolonged the time to reach the peak value during landing [17, 24]. Moreover, hip and knee joints were previously identified as great contributors to energy absorption during landing [25]. Lower knee range of motion found in the novice group indicate that this joint was not as involved in the impact force attenuation during landing as it was in the experienced group. In the frontal plane, no difference was found in knee abduction angle at initial contact and both groups landed with the knee joints adducted during both block and spike jumps. This observation was consistent with a previous study which reported that university volleyball players landed with their knee joints adducted at initial contact of a block jump [26]. Interestingly, the knee angle in the frontal plane seems to be more affected by the type of jump in novices than in experienced players. Our results also showed no statistically significant difference on peak knee abduction moment for both jumps between groups, potentially revealing that the tasks used were not challenging enough to observe differences in knee abduction angles and moments. A systematic review that investigated the effect of landing height on knee abduction angle as a function of sex reported, for seven out of eight studies, an increase in knee abduction angle or moment on females when performing a drop landing from a height greater than 40 cm whereas two out of three showed no sex differences with a height 30 cm or lower [27]. In the current study, experienced and novice volleyball players landed on average from a height of 44.8 and 36.4 cm, respectively. These results suggested that the jump height of the selected tasks (85% of the maximal jump height) was potentially not sufficient to influence knee abduction angle and peak knee abduction moment in experienced and novice volleyball players.
Landing kinematics may be associated to predisposing factors for an ACL injury. Previous studies highlighted evidence that landed with the midfoot or rearfoot and restricted dorsiflexion range of motion may predispose athletes to ACL injury [11, 23]. Based on these findings, novice volleyball players using midfoot or rearfoot strike pattern seemed to land in a high-risk position that could resulted in an ACL rupture. Additionally, forefoot landing pattern was previously associated with smaller knee flexion angle at initial contact [28]. However, smaller knee flexion angles at initial contact increased GRF in controlled impact conditions and appeared to be a risk factor for ACL injury [10, 15]. In our study, experienced volleyball players landed with larger ankle plantarflexion angles while maintaining knee flexion angles similar to that of novices, which could be the most effective strategy to reduce the potential risk of ACL injury.
Finally, the results revealed that the experienced volleyball players jumped higher and thus landed from a higher height than novices. This observation is consistent with a study that reported higher vertical jump performance in volleyball players with 3 years of experience compared to an inexperienced control group [29]. Interestingly, although experienced volleyball players landed from a higher height compared with novices, no statistically significant difference was found in vertical GRF peaks and loading rates between groups. From a mechanical point of view, an increase in the landing height would lead to an increase in the GRF, however experienced volleyball players seemed to use an efficient load accommodation strategy to reduce this impact force in both jump-landing tasks. Restricted lower limb ranges of motion observed in novice volleyball players may also help to explain the absence of difference in GRF parameters.
The overall findings of the present study support our hypothesis that experienced volleyball players exhibit a different landing strategy compared to novice players. For the block jump, experienced volleyball players used a knee attenuation strategy and for the spike jump, they used an ankle attenuation strategy. These findings suggested that experienced volleyball players adapted their landing strategy to the mechanical demands of each jump-landing tasks. This adaptation seemed to be an effective way to reduce the impact force during landings from higher volleyball jumps. In addition, based on the literature and the present study, experienced volleyball players seem to have the most effective strategy to reduce the potential risk of ACL injury. A possible explanation for the difference in landing technique between experienced and novice volleyball players may be related to the repetition of jumps performed during regular volleyball training and competition. Experienced volleyball players likely intuitively adapted their strategy to reduce the risk of ACL injury, whereas novices did not have enough experience to adopt a low-risk landing strategy. In addition, the volleyball experience appeared to contribute to a more repeatable landing strategy for participants in the experienced group, regardless of the type of jump performed. The practice of a sport involving jumps such as volleyball seemed to induce an adaptation of the landing strategy that would be less risky for ACL injuries compared to athletes with no experience in jumping-related sports.
To reduce injury risk on novices and less experienced volleyball players, special attention should be given to learning a proper landing strategy and the results of the present study can form the basis of the learning exercises. Expert oral and video feedbacks could be an effective way to modify lower extremity kinematics and turn a landing strategy predisposed to an ACL injury into a safer one [30]. The principal limitation of our study was that the jump height of both jump-landing tasks was set at 85% of the maximal jump height of each participant to avoid any fatigue effects, but this height was probably not challenging enough to induce potential differences in knee abduction angles and moments. As this landing height did not induce differences in the knee abduction angle and moment, this value may be used as a training threshold when the players are returning to practice after an ACL injury. Finally, experience may not be the only factor that contributed to differences in landing strategy between experienced and novice volleyball players. Many factors may influence the landing biomechanics such as muscle strength and history of anterior cruciate ligament injury [31, 32].