Foot posture index and hip joint rotation mobility in handball and soccer players

Brezovar, Tjaž (author), Drobnič, Matej (author), Kacin, Alan (author)

Purpose: To assess the foot posture and hip joint mobility of elite handball and soccer players and to investigate possible correlations between these measurements. Methods: We compared the differences in means of Foot Posture Index (FPI), pas-sive hip internal (IR), and external (ER) rotation range of motion (ROM) between three groups of male subjects (17 handball players, 17 soccer players, and 16 non-athletes). The Kruskal-Walli’s test and post-hoc pairwise comparison with the Mann-Whitney U test were used to determine the differences between the group means, and associations between variables were analyzed with Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Results: No significant differences in the mean FPI were found between the soccer players (1.3 ± 2.9), handball players (0.7 ± 2.1), and the control group (1.7 ± 2.5) (p > 0.05). Similarly, no significant difference was found between the groups in the hip ER ROM. In contrast, a significantly lower (p < 0.05) hip IR ROM was observed in the soccer players (30.6° ± 5.3°) compared to the handball players (41.0° ± 8.1°) and the control group (41.1° ± 6.4°). A weak positive correlation was only observed between the FPI and hip IR ROM in the soccer players (ρ: 0.36, p = 0.035). Conclusions: Handball and soccer players show a tendency toward less pronated feet compared to non-athletes, but the differences are not significant and the mean FPI values are still within the range of normal foot posture. The range of hip IR seems to be reduced in soccer players and weakly, but significantly and positively associated with the FPI value, which needs to be further investigated in future studies.

• Language: English
• Keywords: foot shape, hip mobility, soccer players, handball players
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: ZF - Faculty of Health Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: Str. 113-126
• Numbering: Vol. 14, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-155382
• UDC: 796.012.1:612.76
• ISSN on article: 2232-2620
• DOI: 10.35469/ak.2023.395
• COBISS.SI-ID: 190714115
• Publication date in RUL: 28.03.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Annales kinesiologiae
• Shortened title: Ann. kinesiol.
• Publisher: Univerza na Primorskem, Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče, Univerzitetna založba Annales, Univerza na Primorskem, Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče, Univerzitetna založba Annales, Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče Koper, Annales ZRS
• ISSN: 2232-2620
• COBISS.SI-ID: 254259712

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian

Abstract

Namen: Oceniti držo stopala in gibljivost kolčnega sklepa pri vrhunskih rokometnih in nogometnih igralcih in raziskati mogoče povezave med temi merami. Metode: Primerjali smo razlike v povprečnem indeksu drže stopala (FPI) ter pasivnega obsega giba zunanje (ZR) in notranje rotacije (NR) rotacije kolka med tremi skupinami moških preiskovancev (17 rokometašev, 17 nogometašev in 16 gibalno netreniranih). Za ugotavljanje razlik povprečji med skupinami smo uporabili test Kruskal-Wallis in jih naknadno parno primerjali z U-testom Mann-Whitney. Za analizo povezanosti spremenljivk je bil uporabljen Spearmanov koeficient korelacije. Rezultati: Ni bilo ugotovljenih statistično pomembnih razlik v povprečnem FPI (p > 0,05) med skupino nogometašev (1,3 ± 2,9), rokometašev (0,7 ± 2,1) in kontrolno skupino (1,7 ± 2,5). Prav tako nismo ugotovili pomembne razlike med skupinama glede ob-sega giba ZR kolka. Nasprotno pa smo pri nogometaših (30,6° ± 5,3°) opazili značilno manjši (p < 0,05) obseg giba NR kolka v primerjavi z rokometaši (41,0° ± 8,1°) in kontrolno skupino (41,1° ± 6,4°). Šibko pozitivno korelacijo smo zaznali le med FPI in obsegom giba NR kolka pri nogometaših (ρ: 0,36, p = 0,035). Zaključki: Rokometaši in nogometaši kažejo težnjo po manj proniranih stopalih v primerjavi s športno netreniranimi posamezniki, vendar so razlike neznačilne in srednje vrednosti FPI še vedno znotraj mej normalne oblike stopal. Zdi se, da je pri nogometaših obseg notranje rotacije kolka zmanjšan ter šibko, vendar značilno in pozitivno povezan z vrednostjo FPI, kar bi bilo v prihodnje smiselno podrobneje proučiti.

• Keywords: oblika stopala, gibljivost kolka, nogometaši, rokometaši