SAGITTAL HIP - KNEE COORDINATION DURING A 45 DEGREE CUTTING TASK

Abstract

Concurrent extension at the hip and flexion at the knee has been suggested as a high risk coordination pattern for the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Nine elite female athletes performed ten 45" cutting tasks before and alter a multi-directional fatiguing protocol. Force and kinematic data were captured. Vector coding was used to calculate sagittal hip - knee coordination for the first 40 ms of foot contact of the dominant limb and percentage time spent in each coordination pattern was extracted. Hip extension - knee flexion was the dominant coordination pattern pre- and post-fatigue ( P less than 0.05)t the time spent in this coordination pattern did not change as a result of fatigue. The hypothesised high risk hip extension - knee flexion was the dominant coordination pattern during the 45' cutting task.