Gender differences in ankle kinematic during a change of direction in u18 basketball players

Purpose: change of direction (cod) significantly impacts athletic performance in basketball, as players frequently execute rapid accelerations and decelerations with abrupt changes in direction. therefore, proficient cod performance is crucial for basketball players. the national basketball association reported that ankle injuries are the most prevalent, comprising 61.6% of all injuries in basketball players. given the varying injury rates between male and female athletes, exploring kinematic differences between genders is of interest. the objective of this comparative analysis is to investigate ankle kinematics during cod maneuvers between male and female u18 basketball players. methods: a total of 19 basketball players (7 female – 12 male) were enrolled. the players were tested on the same day following a proper 10-min warm-up. each player performed two agility tests: v-cut dribbling test without ball (nb) and with ball (wb). the tests consisted in a 25-m sprint with 4 cod of 45° each 5 m. kinematic data were collected using a set of 17 inertial sensors (xsens mtw awinda). the kinematics parameters analysed were the minimum and maximum peaks, and range of motion (rom) of the dominant foot’s ankle joint. the mann- whitney u test was used to compare all the kinematic parameters. the paired comparison between the two conditions wb and nb was evaluated using the wilcoxon test. results: male players showed greater abduction (p = 0.003), and lower dorsiflexion (p<0.001), internal rotation (p<0.001) of the ankle during the cod of the vcut test wb than female ones. similarly in the nb condition, male players shower greater abduction (p = 0.048) and lower dorsiflexion (p<0.001). concerning the comparison between wb and nb conditions, kinematic analysis data showed a significant difference in ankle abduction/adduction rom (p = 0.008) in both genders. in particular, in the wb condition, the rom was approximately 2.5° greater compared to the nb condition. this difference is mainly attributable to the maximum peak values (p = 0.01). conclusions: the study highlights significant differences in joint rom between wb and nb conditions, and between males and females. these findings could contribute to the design of sex-specific training programs aimed at improving performance and reducing injuries in basketball.