Relação entre a rigidez articular do tornozelo e o desempenho de atletas de futsal em testes clínicos

Abstract

Several functional tests used in the clinical assessment practice of sports physiotherapy are discussed as being dependent on ankle joint stiffness. However, it is not clear if this relationship actually exists. In this study, we investigated whether futsal athletes show a relationship between ankle joint stiffness during jump landings and performance in clinical assessment tests. Twenty-four male professional futsal athletes performed clinical tests, including the Lunge Test, Modified Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBTm), Side Hop Test, and Time to Stabilization Test. The 3D kinematics and kinetics of unilateral drop landings were captured. Based on the kinematic and kinetic data, ankle stiffness in the sagittal plane was determined for landings with the preferred and non-preferred leg for kicking a ball. Statistical analysis was performed using the Shapiro-Wilk test, followed by Spearman correlation to identify correlations between measured ankle joint stiffness in the jump and ankle mobility in the Lunge test with other clinical assessment tests. Both ankle stiffness in landings with the preferred and non-preferred leg showed no significant correlation with the results of functional tests. Ankle mobility assessed by the Lunge test showed a positive correlation with anterior SEBTm (rho = 0.70, p < 0.01). We concluded that performance in clinical assessment tests is not correlated with ankle joint stiffness in futsal athletes.