Increased Visual Attentional Demands Alter Lower Extremity Sidestep Cutting Kinematics in Male Basketball Players.
Koen T H Rikken, Tom Panneman, Fabian Vercauteren and 2 others
PMID 39502550WHAT IT FOUND
When male basketball players had to watch and react to lights during a sidestep cut, hip and knee flexion decreased compared with a known route.
Ankle angles did not change. This is a movement change, not proof of injury risk.
Key findings
01In 15 male basketball players, visual attention during a 90° sidestep cut reduced hip flexion across the cut; peak hip flexion was 37.8° compared with 45.5° in the known-route condition.
02Peak knee flexion was 59.9° with visual attention compared with 64.1° in the known-route condition.
03Peak hip external rotation was 13.2° with visual attention compared with 8.2° in the known-route condition, while no ankle differences were observed.
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What it does not show
Only 15 male basketball players were studied, so the results may not apply to female players, other sports or other skill levels. The outcome was joint angle kinematics, not actual ACL injuries. IMU motion capture was less accurate than optoelectronic systems, especially for knee abduction/adduction and hip rotation; the paper notes possible errors of up to 11° for knee angles and more than 8° for hip rotation. The sample size was powered for medium to large effects and may have missed smaller changes. The paper does not report randomisation or blinding of condition order, and approach speed was not measured with timing gates. Distractor routes were used to conceal the route, but participants might still have guessed it.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the reduced hip and knee flexion during the visual attention task as proof that this causes ACL injury or that adding lights to training prevents injury. The study measured joint angles in 15 male basketball players, not injuries, and ankle angles did not differ.