Understanding the impact loading characteristics of a badminton lunge among badminton players

Abstract

BackgroundThe rapid and repetitive badminton lunges would produce strenuous impact loading on the lower extremities of players and these loading are thought to be the contributing factors of chronic knee injuries. This study examined the impact loading characteristics in various groups of badminton athletes performing extreme lunges.MethodsFifty-two participants classified into male skilled, female skilled, male unskilled, and female unskilled groups performed badminton lunge with their maximum-effort. Shoe-ground kinematics, ground reaction forces, and knee moments were measured by using synchronised force platform and motion analysis system. A 2 (gender) x 2 (skill-level) factorial ANOVA was performed to determine the effects of different gender and different playing levels, as well as the interaction of two factors on all variables.ResultsMale athletes had faster approaching speed (male 3.87 and female 1.08 m/s), longer maximum lunge distance (male 1.47 and female 1.16 m), larger maximum (male 215.7 and female 121.65 BW/s) and mean loading rate (male 178.43 and female 81.77 BW/s) and larger peak knee flexion moment (male 0.75 and female 0.69) compared with female athletes (P < 0.001). Unskilled athletes exhibited smaller footstrike angle (skilled 45.78 and unskilled 32.35°), longer contact time (skilled 0.69 and unskilled 0.75 s), larger peak horizontal GRF (skilled 1.61 and unskilled 2.40 BW), smaller mean loading rate (skilled 150.15 and unskilled 110.05 BW/s) and larger peak knee flexion moment (P < .05; skilled 0.69 and unskilled 0.75 Nm/BW) than the skilled athletes. In addition, the interaction indicated greater peak GRF impact in female unskilled athletes compared with female skilled athletes (P < 0.001; female skilled 2.01 and female unskilled 2.95 BW), while there was no difference between male participants (P > 0.05; male skilled 2.19 and male unskilled 2.49 BW).ConclusionsThese data suggested that male athletes and/or unskilled athletes experience greater impact loading rates and peak knee flexion moment during lunge compared with female and skilled athletes, respectively. This may expose them to higher risk of overuse injuries. Furthermore, female unskilled athletes seemed to be more vulnerable to lower extremity injuries.

Biomechanics of lower limb in badminton lunge: a systematic scoping review

“…One article investigated only female participants. Only one article had participants with male-to-female at a one-to-one ratio ( Lam et al, 2018 ). The sample size of each subject group ranged from 4 to 17.…”

“…Furthermore, there were some other testing requirements when performing the lunge manoeuvre. Lam et al (2018) controlled the total completion time of the move (forward lunge + recovery) within 3 s. The lunge distance between the starting position and force plate was determined as 2.5 times the foot length during a forehand forward lunge and three times of the foot length during a forehand backward lunge, respectively ( Hu et al, 2015 ).…”

“…The assignments of the hitting target (shuttlecock) were also different among studies, which might alter both upper and lower limb biomechanics of a lunge. During the experiments, a shuttlecock was often suspended at 0.6 m height as the hitting target ( Lam, Ding & Qu, 2017 ; Lam et al, 2018 ; Lam et al, 2017 ; Nielsen et al, 2020 ; Valldecabres et al, 2018 ). On the other hand, Kuntze, Mansfield & Sellers (2010) and Mei et al (2017) manually threw the shuttlecock over the net to a dedicated court area.…”

“…Agility was often assessed by approach speed (or time), foot contact time, and total completion time during lunges since participants were instructed to return to the initial starting position as fast as possible ( Kuntze, Mansfield & Sellers, 2010 ; Lam, Ding & Qu, 2017 ; Lam et al, 2018 ; Lam et al, 2017 ; Lin et al, 2016 ; Valldecabres et al, 2018 ). The approach speed was the average speed lunging from the starting position to the initial contact of the lunging leg (i.e., racket side) ( Lam et al, 2018 ). Afterward, the contact time (or stance duration) was calculated from the initial lunge landing until the foot take-off for recovery.…”

“…Landing angle (or footstrike angle) can represent the mechanism and characteristics of landing, particularly influenced by footwear, gender, and playing level ( Hong et al, 2014 ; Lam, Ding & Qu, 2017 ; Lam et al, 2018 ; Lam et al, 2017 ). The ankle, knee, and hip kinematics were also taken into account for the understanding of lunge characteristics.…”