Can Functional Movement Assessment Predict Football Head Impact Biomechanics?

Purpose The purposes of this study was to determine functional movement assessments’ ability to predict head impact biomechanics in college football players and to determine whether head impact biomechanics could explain preseason to postseason changes in functional movement performance. Methods Participants (N = 44; mass, 109.0 ± 20.8 kg; age, 20.0 ± 1.3 yr) underwent two preseason and postseason functional movement assessment screenings: 1) Fusionetics Movement Efficiency Test and 2) Landing Error Scoring System (LESS). Fusionetics is scored 0 to 100, and participants were categorized into the following movement quality groups as previously published: good (≥75), moderate (50–75), and poor (7 errors). The Head Impact Telemetry (HIT) System measured head impact frequency and magnitude (linear acceleration and rotational acceleration). An encoder with six single-axis accelerometers was inserted between the padding of a commercially available Riddell football helmet. We used random intercepts general linear-mixed models to analyze our data. Results There were no effects of preseason movement assessment group on the two Head Impact Telemetry System impact outcomes: linear acceleration and rotational acceleration. Head impact frequency did not significantly predict preseason to postseason score changes obtained from the Fusionetics (F1,36 = 0.22, P = 0.643, R2 = 0.006) or the LESS (F1,36
Source: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise - Category: Sports Medicine Tags: Applied Sciences Source Type: research