Biomechanical Analysis Methods to Assess Professional Badminton Players' Lunge Performance

Summary

Here, we present a protocol to evaluate the differences in injury mechanisms between professional and amateur players when performing a badminton maximal right lunge movement by analyzing lower limb kinematics.

Abstract

Under the condition of simulating a badminton court in the laboratory, this study used the injury mechanism model to analyze the maximal right lunge movements of eight professional badminton players and eight amateur players. The purpose of this protocol is to study the differences in kinematics and joint moment of the right knee and ankle. A motion capture system and force plate were used to capture data of the joint movements of the lower extremity and the vertical ground reaction force (vGRF). Sixteen young men who did not have any sports injuries in the past 6 months took part in the study. The subjects performed a maximal right lunge from the start position with their right foot, stepping on and fully contacting with the force plate, hit the shuttlecock with an underhand stroke to the designated position in the backcourt, and then returned to the start/end position. All subjects wore the same badminton shoes to avoid a difference in impact from different badminton shoes. The amateur players showed a greater range of ankle movement and reverse joint moment on the frontal plane, and a larger internal joint rotation moment on the horizontal plane. The professional badminton players exhibited greater knee moment on the sagittal and frontal planes. Therefore, these factors should be considered in the development of the training program to reduce the risk of sports injuries in knee and ankle joints. This study simulates the real badminton court and calibrates the range of activities of each movement of the subjects so that the subjects complete the experimental action in a natural state with high quality. A limitation of this study is that it does not combine joint load and muscle activity. Another limitation is that the sample size is small and should be expanded in future studies. This research method can be applied to the lower limb biomechanical research of other footwork in the badminton project.

Introduction

Badminton has always been one of the most popular sports in the world. In a game, the frequency of performing lunges is relatively high¹. It is of vital importance to master the ability to quickly perform a lunge and return to the start position or move in the other direction². The lunge not only is crucial to badminton but also is of great importance to tennis, table tennis, and other sports.

The forward lunge has been taken as a function evaluation method for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficiency and knee stability^3,4. Studies show that badminton players need both high muscular strength and professional techniques. In general, amateur players pay more attention to technical training than to muscular strength training. If an individual of low-strength ability takes a low-quality training, the training time becomes longer, therefore leading to an overload of the lower limbs and even to a sports injury.

High-intensity training results in a large load on the lower limbs, which may be the cause of sports injuries⁵. Lower limb injuries account for 60% of the total number of injuries. For both male and female badminton players, the knee and the foot are the most vulnerable parts^6,7,8,9. Kinetic data analysis can be used to explain the lower limb injuries of players at different levels. It was reported that professional badminton players have considerable intratendinous flow which rises after repetitive load movements, especially in the patella tendon of the dominant leg.

Reports show that previously conducted research on racquet sports mainly assessed kinematic parameters but focused less on kinetics^2,10. When a professional player has played a competition, the pressure is concentrated in their Achilles tendon and anterior knee tendons, especially in the dominant lunge leg⁵. In racquet sports, clinical analyses of injuries mainly focused on the lower limb, which exceeded 58%, specifically on the knee and ankle^{5,8,10,11,12,13}.

Previous studies have evaluated the physiological indicators of badminton^14,15,16 and the features of physical abilities^17,18,19,20. Due to these basic features, basic actions on the agility of badminton are proposed to improve the training effect and the on-the-spot performance of the players^21,22. Previous studies on badminton focused on different movements or directions of lunge movement without comparing the movement characteristics between professional and amateur badminton players^{23,24,25,26,27}. These differences in dynamics and joint movement make them susceptible to different mechanisms of sports injuries.

The aim of this study is to study the differences in kinematics and dynamics between professional badminton players and amateur badminton players, as well as the range of movement (ROM) of the dominant leg. It is assumed that professional and amateur badminton players show differences in the right forward lunge and that a greater ROM increases the risk of sports injuries.

Protocol

The experiment was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Sports Science in Ningbo University. All the participants have signed written consents and were told about the requirements and process of the lunge experiment. 1. Gait Laboratory Preparation When calibrating, remove or cover other potentially reflective items in the volume, avoid the effects of reflections from sunlight, light, and other reflective items on the identification, and ensure a reasonable fluorescent…

Representative Results

Figure 2 shows the mean vGRF of phases I, II, III, and IV (i.e., the initial impact peak, secondary impact peak, weight acceptance, and drive-off phases, respectively) of the professional players and the amateur players when they performed a lunge. There is no significant difference in phases I, II, and III. However, the vGRF of the professional players is markedly higher than that of the amateur players, indicating a significant difference (<st…

Discussion

One of the disadvantages of most studies analyzing the biomechanical characteristics of the badminton lunging step is that they ignore the skill level of the badminton players performing the lunge. This study divides the subjects into professional players and amateur players to explore the differences in joint ROM and joint moment at different levels when performing a right forward lunge.

As for the ankle joint ROM on the frontal plane, the amateur players exhibited greater ROM than the profes…

Materials

Motion Tracking Cameras	Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK		n= 8
Valid Dongle	Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK		Vicon Nexus 1.4.116
Force Platform Amplifier	Kistler, Switzerland		n=1
Force Platform	Kistler, Switzerland		n=1
Vicon Datastation ADC	Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK		–
T-Frame	Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK	–	–
14 mm Diameter Passive Retro-reflective Marker	Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK		n=16
Double Adhesive Tape	Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK		For fixing markers to skin
Badmionton racket	Li-ning, China	BADMINTON RACKET CLUB PLAY BLADE 1000 [AYPL186-4]	MATERIAL: Standard Grade Carbon Fiber WEIGHT: 81-84 grams OVERALL LENGTH: 675mm GRIP LENGTH: 200mm BALANCE POINT: 295mm TENSION: Vertical 20-24 lbs, Horizontal 22-26 lbs