Ankle mechanics during jump landings across different foot positions in professional ballet dancers

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to investigate the effect foot position on ankle joint mechanics and vertical ground reaction forces (vGRF) across jump landings in professional ballet dancers. Twenty-seven professional ballet dancers (men: 14; women: 13) attended one data collection session, completing five maximal countermovement jumps in parallel, first, second, fourth, and fifth positions. Three-dimensional ankle mechanics, landing vGRF variables, and jump height were recorded via a seven-camera motion capture system and one force platform. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance was used to assess the main effects foot position across all target variables. A linear discriminate analysis was conducted to investigate target variables across foot positions. Frontal and transverse plane ankle mechanics had the largest impact when discriminating between foot positions. Ankle power in the transverse plane during jump landing in fourth was double that of all other positions. Our findings suggest that ankle range of motion should be restored before returning to jumps in fourth and fifth positions following distal lower extremity injury. The multiplanar energy transfer observed indicates a need for specific exercises to develop multiplanar force and rate of force development of local structures around the ankle.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomechanics
• ground reaction forces
• kinematics
• kinetics
• machine learning

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the artists of The Royal Ballet for participating in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

St Mary’s University Ethics Committee provided ethical approval for this study, in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14763141.2024.2369913