Does twisting with the legs crossed increase the risk of injury on landing?
Certainly.
… but it’s not the only contributing factor. Nor the most critical.
Many ACL and ankle injuries are suffered on competition landings to gymnasts with legs together.
Korbut Flip put up a controversial post on this topic quoting avatareverlark:
Okay so the gymternet is going to pounce on me, but I have to say this.
A lot of people seem to think that Aliya’s ACL injury was because of her crossed legs …
However, as an amateur physicist and mathematician, this justification for why she tore her ACL just never made sense to me. …
You can see Aliya’s 2011 injury happen at 45sec of this video.
That was not nearly one of Aliya’s worst vaults.
If you’ve an opinion, pounce on avatareverlark via Korbut Flip. 
Coaches should teach new gymnasts to twist with legs together. Al Fong is a role model on this.
Coaches should teach new gymnasts to land like Uchimura. The “motorcycle” position. That’s safest.
F.I.G. needs improve the Vault landing mat. Using the same surface as Double Mini would instantly reduce the number of injuries in competition.
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“A lot of people seem to think that Aliya’s ACL injury was because of her crossed legs … ”
Really? I thought the consensus was that she twisted into the ground that day. Her crappy form on the vault was just a sympton of bigger technical issues.
While I do appreciate avatareverlark’s effort (which is why I reblogged him), I do not wholly agree with his argument, as you can see in my comments on the post. So keep that in mind before you pounce.
Ha.
I clarified the post to mention avatareverlark.
Agreed. Twisting with crossed legs may be SYMPTOMATIC of poor technique, which can cause injuries, but it can also be compensation for lack of power, or just lousy careless form in the setting of perfectly good technique. Crossed legs have nothing directly to do with ACL injuries. Mustafina has never really had the power/block to get an Amanar around safely. So yes, she cranks the twist big time and crosses her legs to try and get around, but what needs to be fixed for safety is the block, not the leg form.
Coaches should absolutely teach and encourage clean form, and of course good landing technique, but in this case, these are secondary issues at most. The bigger coaching issue is that Mustafina never really had any business competing this vault, it just wasn’t yet safe to do onto a hard surface. Don’t take this to mean I’m pointing fingers per se, since things get very complicated and political at that level, but that vault was scary every time.
I do NOT like Uchimaras landing positions. He is hunched over and starring down a lot of the time. He might stick a lot but I would take a .3 deduction on landing posture with him a lot of the time. Not a fan.
Uchi: if you look at the strict definition, it does not rate a deduction. I think it is biomechanically sound and looks natural. If anything he shows max control, how he anticipates the ground rather than just slamming into it.
Vault: I would like to see two vaults (no more than one round off entry) required of all gymnasts. Perhaps not doing one only and going for max twists would lead to less injury. Even if it did not, would make the event more interesting, less freakish.
I have learned that:
Women have a greater risk of suffering a non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear. This because the pronation in the feet and because the knee is internally rotated (x-legs).
If you look at the picture of Mustafina her twist, than you can see that it is the other way around (o-legs). So it shouldn’t make a bigger risk.
Source: Deficits in Neuromuscular Control of the trunk predict knee injury risk
“I do NOT like Uchimaras landing positions. He is hunched over and starring down a lot of the time. He might stick a lot but I would take a .3 deduction on landing posture with him a lot of the time. Not a fan.”
AGREED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This “land it like Uchi” business makes absolutely no sense to me. How did combing a bent over position and landing with the force of multiple times your body weight become a good thing?
It’s on average the best and safest way to reduce impact force to zero.
All of the Japanese men are landing that way now. Wide base of support. Soft landing like a cat. Absorb.
“Absorb. …” The great force of impact with a bent over back? It STILL makes no sense and “all the Japanese men do it” is not sufficient enough reason for me to think it’s a good idea.
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