Crystal sends us a link to an an interesting study that seems to indicate that landing barefoot on soft mats causes more “distress” on the feet than on harder mats.
Certainly many higher level gymnasts prefer stiffer mats for landings for many reasons, especially as the risk of ankle sprain is lower.
Sport Science geeks should click through:
Dr. Bill Sands tells us that Sport Science research in gymnastics is dying. … If so, why don’t they make their reporting documentation and language more accessible?
The format and unnecessarily complex wordusement of that abstract makes me want to burn my most recent issue of the Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology.
2 comments ↓
I don’t know that I’d use the word “distress.” They weren’t quantifying the forces at all. They were simply looking at the ankle motion. (kinematics) Further, you can’t imply any clinical significance because there is no research to suggest that by landing on de-stabilized surfaces that one is more prone to ankle sprains or other types of foot injuries – is there? You’d need to conduct some type of longitudinal tracking study, somehow control for the number of landings, and then determine if there were more injuries based on the stabilizing features of the mat. At that point, you’d need to examine the different levels of stabilization to determine if there is a threshold at which gymnasts seem to get most injured. The research could just continue on and on and on and on…
I think I’d rather risk an occasional ankle sprain from an uncharacteristic landing. Plus, could landing on unstable surfaces offer some proprioceptive effects? The research literature suggests that training on unstable surfaces with healthy athletes is pretty pointless. But, how many athletes in other sports land from several feet in the air?
Honestly, this is sort of a “DUH” type of study to me. You mean, there’s more foot motion when you are on an unstable surface? No way? Are you serious? I suppose there is merit in making such quantification, but still…
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