Development and Evaluation of Instrumented Soccer Equipment to Collect Ankle Joint Kinematics in the Field

Ankle sprains commonly occur during athletic competition and result in traumatic injury to the lateral ligament complex. Ankle ligament sprains are the most common injury type for intercollegiate soccer players and athletes that sustain lateral ankle sprains may lose game and/or practice time, have recurrent sprains due to ankle instability, incur proprioceptive deficits, and be at an increased risk of ankle osteoarthritis. The high rate of ankle injuries among soccer athletes demonstrates a need for novel and advanced data collection methodologies to reduce the incidence of lateral ankle sprains and improve injury prevention interventions.\ud The purposes of this study were to develop instrumented soccer equipment to collect ankle joint kinematics in the field; establish the reliability and validity of a kinematic assessment using instrumented equipment during athletic maneuvers; and identify laboratory maneuvers that elicited game-like demands from athletes. Wireless orientation sensors were integrated into soccer shin guards and turf shoes. The instrumented equipment collected ankle joint kinematics during simulated athletic maneuvers in the laboratory and field. The simulated athletic maneuvers in the laboratory are commonly performed by soccer players and have been previously studied. Maneuvers included drop landing, drop jump, stop jump, and jump-stop cut. Drop landing and drop jump maneuvers resulted in poor to excellent reliability and very good to excellent validity. The stop jump maneuver resulted in poor to fair reliability and excellent validity. The jump-stop cut maneuver resulted in poor to excellent reliability and very good validity. The soccer-specific field maneuvers were jump header, moving jump header, and slalom. All maneuvers resulted in poor to good reliability. \ud To identify laboratory maneuvers that elicited game-like demands, laboratory maneuvers of varied demand were compared to field maneuvers. Drop landing and drop jump maneuvers from a 60 cm platform elicited a similar response to the jump header maneuver. A jump distance recommendation for the stop jump maneuver was not warranted because jump distance did not significantly alter landing biomechanics. The instrumented equipment collected reliable and valid ankle joint kinematics in the sagittal plane and are a promising technology for in-game data collection and injury prevention.\u