Real‐time feedback on knee abduction moment does not improve frontal‐plane knee mechanics during jump landings

Excessive knee abduction loading is a contributing factor to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a double‐leg landing training program with real‐time visual feedback improves frontal‐plane mechanics during double‐ and single‐leg landings. Knee abduction angles and moments and vertical ground reaction forces (GRF) of 21 recreationally active women were quantified for double‐ and single‐leg landings before and after the training program. This program consisted of two sessions of double‐leg jump landings with real‐time visual feedback on knee abduction moments for the experimental group and without real‐time feedback for the control group. No significant differences were found between training groups. In comparison with pre‐training data, peak knee abduction moments decreased 12% post‐training for both double‐ and single‐leg landings; whereas peak vertical GRF decreased 8% post‐training for double‐leg landings only, irrespective of training group. Real‐time feedback on knee abduction moments, therefore, did not significantly improve frontal‐plane knee mechanics during landings. The effect of the training program on knee abduction moments, however, transferred from the double‐leg landings (simple task) to single‐leg landings (more complex task). Consequently, ACL injury prevention efforts may not need to focus on complex tasks during which injury occurs.