ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Biomechanics and Control of Human Movement
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Biomechanics: Enhancing Sports Performance, Mitigating Injury Risks, and Optimizing Athlete Rehabilitation - Volume IIView all 9 articles
Effects of Forefoot versus Rearfoot Landing on Biomechanical Risk Factors for Lower Limb Injuries and Performance During Stop-Jumping Tasks
Provisionally accepted
- 1The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Japan
- 2Huaqiao University, Quanzhou, China
- 3Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
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Lower limb injuries commonly occur during sudden deceleration movements, where landing technique plays a critical role. The choice between forefoot and rearfoot landing strategies remains debatable, especially when considering both injury prevention and performance optimization. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the forefoot and rearfoot landing on lower limb biomechanical risk factors and performance during a stop-jumping task. Twenty-three healthy male subjects performed a stop-jumping task under forefoot and rearfoot landing conditions, during which 3D kinematic, kinetic, and performance data were collected. Forefoot landing exhibited significantly greater ankle plantarflexion (-26.02° vs 18.81°) and internal rotation (3.67° vs -3.32°) at initial contact compared to rearfoot landing (p < 0.001). In the early landing phase, forefoot landing demonstrated larger posterior ground reaction force (GRF) (0-41%), more posteriorly inclined GRF angle (0-20%), and more vertical inclined shank angle (11%- 57%). Hip flexion angles (20%-91.3%) and abduction angles (27.9%-98.5%) were smaller and the knee abduction angles (16.4%-28.2%) were greater in forefoot. Forefoot landing achieved shorter stance time (396.75 vs 433.48 ms, p = 0.01) while maintaining similar jump height (49.51 vs 50.07 cm, p = 0.34) compared to rearfoot landing. Forefoot landing during stop-jumping tasks demonstrated distinct biomechanical patterns including increased posterior GRF and more posteriorly inclined GRF angle during early stance, potentially reducing anterior cruciate ligament loading while providing performance benefits through decreased stance time without compromising jump height. However, the increased ankle internal rotation observed during forefoot landing suggests an elevated risk of lateral ankle sprain. These findings suggest a potential trade-off between knee protection and ankle vulnerability that should be considered when developing landing technique training programs.
Keywords: Landing strategies, ACL injuries, performance, Ankle sprain, comparison
Received: 30 Jul 2025; Accepted: 29 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 HUANG, He, Mao, Ruan and Takeshita. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Daisuke Takeshita, dtakeshita@idaten.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp
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