Previous High School Participation in Varsity Sport and Jump-Landing Biomechanics in Adult Recreational Athletes.

ACADEMIC medical centers; ATHLETIC ability; BASKETBALL; BIOMECHANICS; STATISTICAL correlation; HIGH school students; JUMPING; LEISURE; RESEARCH methodology; NEUROPHYSIOLOGY; RACKET games; REGRESSION analysis; RESEARCH funding; SOCCER; VOLLEYBALL; SPORTS participation; NEUROMUSCULAR system; CROSS-sectional method; DATA analysis software; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; ONE-way analysis of variance; ADULTS

Context: Early sports sampling is associated with superior biomechanics in youth athletes; however, the effect of multisport participation on adult biomechanics is unknown. Objective: To compare jump-landing biomechanics between adult recreational athletes who previously participated in 0, 1, or 2 or more select high school varsity sports (VSs; basketball, lacrosse, soccer, volleyball) that feature landing and cutting tasks. Design: Descriptive laboratory study. Setting: University community setting. Patients or Other Participants: Fifty adult recreational athletes (22 women, 28 men; age = 23.8 ± 2.5 years) with no high school VS experience or with high school VS experience in basketball, lacrosse, soccer, or volleyball. Athletes were grouped into those who participated in 0 (0VS, n = 11), 1 (1VS, n=21), or 2 or more (2VSs, n=18) of these sports at the high school level. Main Outcome Measure(s): The average Landing Error Scoring System (LESS) total score from 3 individual jump landings was determined. A 1-way analysis of covariance using sex as the covariate was calculated to compare groups. The Pearson R was used to test for the correlation between the LESS score and number of sports played, and a linear regression analysis was performed using the number of sports played to predict the LESS score. The a level was set a priori at .05. Results: The 0VS athletes produced similar LESS scores as the 1VS athletes (5.89 ± 1.2 versus 5.38 ± 1.93 points, respectively, P ¼ .463), whereas the 2VSs athletes demonstrated lower LESS scores (3.56 ± 1.97 points) than the 0VS (P = .002) and 1VS (P = .004) athletes. The LESS scores were moderately negatively correlated with the number of high school VSs played (R² = -0.491, P < .001). The linear regression analysis was significant (F1,37=9.416, P=.004) with R²=0.203. For every additional VS played at the high school level, the LESS score decreased by 1.28 points. Conclusions: Landing Error Scoring System scores were lower in athletes who had a history of multisport high school varsity participation in basketball, lacrosse, soccer, or volleyball compared with those who had a history of single-sport or no participation in these sports at this level. Multisport high school varsity participation in these sports may result in improved neuromuscular performance and potentially reduced injury risks as adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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