Analysis of Knee Proprioception Experiment Results in Sports Science

This report presents a discussion of the results from a sports science experiment investigating knee proprioception in football players, utilizing a Biodex dynamometer to compare injured and non-injured individuals. The study examines the impact of injuries, particularly ACL ruptures, on knee proprioception at various angles (15°, 30°, and 45°), comparing the results with previous research and anatomical factors. The findings reveal significant differences in proprioception between the groups, with unexpected results concerning the influence of angle on the mean difference. The report also explores the factors influencing changes in proprioception, including the role of ligaments (ACL, LCL, PCL, MCL) and muscle strength, while also discussing the implications of these findings for injury prevention and rehabilitation strategies in football. Limitations of the study are also discussed, specifically the lack of psychometric data, highlighting the need for further research in this area.

Running head: SPORTS SCIENCE
Discussion of Results for Sports Science Experiment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Present findings and previous studies
Football is contact sport which involves continuous physical activity such as running
tackling, shooting and others. The purpose of this discussion is to present the results found
from the experiment through knee proprioception test by Biodex dynamometer. The purpose
of this discussion is to interpret the numerical findings into the qualitative discussion wile
comparing the results with previous researches. The discussion also includes the hypothesis
presentation and explanation of acceptance. Some unexpected results were also found in this
study which has been presented in this section. The factors that are influencing knee
surrounded muscle, bone, tendon and other musculoskeletal movement for knee
proprioception, have been discussed along with the evidences of human anatomy. From the
results it has been already found that the difference is significant. However, the aim of this
discussion is to analyse the implication of this findings as well.
Football is one of the most contact sports and running game which requires
continuous physical as well as rapid movement such as running tackling, shooting and other
high intensive activity. Some of the activities are even highly intensive from others in terms
of speed and muscle strength required to execute. Some of the body movement are
unexpected and also very sudden which require intensive tendon tension and agile
momentum. According to Read et al. (2016), because of the intensive movement the risk of
injury (considering both long term and short term) is very high in football compared to other
sports. This study also suggests that the demographical background, more specifically the age
difference can also cause different results. Clinical practitioners using joint position sense or
threshold to detect passive motion techniques need to consider the reliability and validity of
data provided. Since this study is based on the comparison between the injured and the non
injured player, the different age measures has not been considered and could not be compared

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with the result of this study. According to Read et al. (2019), major injuries that can cause the
difference in knee proprioception is the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) rupture. In has
been found that almost 73% cases of poor knee proprioception is the Anterior Cruciate
Ligament (ACL) rupture.
The proprioception deflects predicted knee proprioception is the Anterior Cruciate
Ligament (ACL) rupture. This situation is more familiar for female players than male players.
According to Paul and Nagarajan (2015), potential relationship of proprioception is with knee
injury, laxity, activity level, subjective function and age of an individual. According to t test
study conducted by Read et al. (2019), the difference in knee proprioception is significant in
injured footballers than the uninjured footballer. The study also shows that the degree of
angular movement ability in knee also varies depending on the angle of the final stage. In
other words, this study argued that difference of knee proprioception is more significant in
higher degree compared to lower degree. As opined by Waldén et al. (2015), the repeated
longitudinal movement of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament can weaken the connection
between the femur and tibia even further, which causes more consequent stress in resistive
ligaments as well as other ligaments such as Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL), Medial
Collateral Ligament (MCL). As showed by Hägglund et al., (2018), the angular differences
between various knee positions regulate the applied stress on the connected ligaments and
muscular tissues. The study also suggests that the injured patients had poorer proprioception
in the injured than uninjured leg. However, the absence of sufficient psychometric data for
the measurement techniques of knee proprioception is a major limitation that must be
considered by clinicians or researches when using knee JPS or TTDPM data during
rehabilitation assessment.

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Hypothesis Testing
According to the knee proprioception test by Biodex dynamometer between injured
players as well as uninjured players considering their both legs, there was a non-significant
difference in 15° angle between injured and non-injured football players. Considering this
insignificant differences it has been found that a significant difference was present in 30°
angle between injured and non-injured football players when it comes to comparing the
overall knee proprioception of both legs. At the same time, the overall knee proprioception of
both legs shows that there was a significant difference in 45° angle between injured and non-
injured football players.
From the comparison between the injured leg and non-injured leg of the injured
practitioner slightly different results were found. There was a significant difference in 15°
angle between injured leg and non-injured leg in the injured participants. When the angle
rises or the position of the lower limb against the gravitational pull decreases, there was a
significant difference in 30° angle between injured leg and non-injured leg in the injured
participants. The highest knee angle showed that there was a significant difference in 45°
angle between injured leg and non-injured leg in the injured participants.
From the comparison between knee proprioception of dominant leg and knee
proprioception of non-dominant leg among the non-injured football players, it has been found
that there was a non-significant difference in 15° angle between dominant and non-dominant
leg in non-injured football players. When the angle rises or the position of the lower limb
against the gravitational pulls decreased, there was a significant difference in 30° angle
between dominant and non-dominant leg in non-injured football players. In case of non-
injured footballer the highest knee angle showed that there was a significant difference in 45°
angle between dominant and non-dominant leg in non-injured football players.

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Comparing all the three data trends of knee proprioception test by Biodex
dynamometer between injured players as well as uninjured players considering their both legs
it has been found that there was a significant main effect of the three angles Bonferroni post
hoc tests showed that participants were more significant with angle 15° compared to angle 30
and angle 45°. As per the hypotheses the null hypothesis was the knee proprioception of
injured player is not different than the un-injured player and the alternative hypotheses was
the knee proprioception of injured player is significantly different than the un-injured player
and the alternative hypotheses. The significant main effect of the three angles Bonferroni
post hoc tests showed that there is significant evidence to reject the null hypothesis
considering the mean score for angle 15° angle 30° and angle 45°.
Unexpected findings
As per the other studies on knee proprioception as well the anatomical theories the
higher angle should have lower impact on mean difference between two groups. In the rest
position the angle of considered 90 degree in Biodex dynamometer test. Therefore, with
lowering the angle of the knee possiotion, the participants felt more strain in their knee areas
because of the greater effective weight to hold. However, the study shows that the degree of
angular movement ability in knee also varies depending on the angle of the final stage. This
result also varied between the injured and uninjured players. In other words, this study argued
that difference of knee proprioception is more significant in higher degree compared to lower
degree for a particular participants group, where the comparative results between two groups
were opposite, which is completely unexpected.
Factors influencing changes in proprioception
As per the anatomical analysis of Kowalczuk et al. (2018), it has been found that the
stain at knee areas that regulates the knee proprioception depends on mainly four types of

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ligament and smoothness of cartilage. This model suggests that the lateral movement of knee
area depends on Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL), which also limits the sideways motion of
the tibia. The Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) connects the femour to the tebia centre of
knee to limit the relation and forward motion of the tibia. There is another essential ligament
name Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) which controls the backward movements of the
lower limb. In this case the Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) does not have major
participation. As per Guzzini et al. (2016), the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) was
suggested in the report as playing an important role in knee proprioception, but ACL injury
has an unclear impact on knee proprioception. Resources for and against a propriokeptal
impairment following an ACL injury were provided in research using two most common
measuring technique, common position sensory and passive motion detection threshold. The
sensory neuron opening in the ligament tissues, especially the B beta fibre, which dependent
for mechanical stimuli sensation develops the non visual perception of the angle of the bone
joint. Hence, in this case the, the level of mechanical stimuli received by the B beta fibre due
to tension and strain in Lateral Collateral Ligament and Anterior Cruciate Ligament regulates
the knee proprioception (Passanante et al., 2017). This conceptualisation can be considered
where other direct stimuli are not present in environment, such as visual stimuli and auditory
stimuli.
When it comes to this research, the aim of the study was to see if there was a
significant difference in knee proprioception between injured and non-injured football
players. Hence in this case the clinical perception should be more muscular ability of
individual rather that the signal generated by the B beta fibre. Hence, for this study, the
injured participants have weak Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL) and Anterior Cruciate
Ligament (ACL), which causes inefficient movement event after receiving the proper
sensation of the position of the leg. Here comes the dependency on the motor neurons that are

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responsible for post sensory desiccative movement. In this case, after receiving a sensation of
mechanical movement of the tissues and after receiving the post sensory motor signals to the
target tendons of knee area, the weakness of the Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL) and
Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL), restricts the associate musculoskeletal system to function
properly for positioning the lower limb at correct angle.
Implications
From the qualitative interpretation of the numerical results of this experimental study
it has been found that the knee proprioception of injured player is significantly different
different than the un-injured player. According to Paul, Nagaraj and Solomon (2018), with
proper training and physical excersize the Non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injuries in
soccer players could be prevented. It has been proved statistically that Non-contact anterior
cruciate ligament injury had been reduced rates at Lower extremity by plyometric, dynamic
balance training. On the other hand Alentorn-Geli, Mendiguchía and Myer (2015), stated that
Proprioceptive training is also very helpful to prevent knee ligament injuries among football
players. The study also stated that Lower limb Injury prevention training program includes
proprioceptive and neuromuscular training on prevention of knee and ankle injuries. From the
longitudinal experiment on group of players under training programs it has been found that
the effect of sprain was the most frequent diagnosis. The controlled trial study on football
players has found with ankle sprains the chances of knee ligament injuries even increase.
According to the result presented by Hooper and Strauss (2016), knee injury is the
second frequent injury among football players. In comparison with other injured player
groups, most knee injuries were Anterior Crucial Ligament (ACL). However, this study
found that reduced proprioception errors prevented injuries to the knees and knees of female
handball players in Europe. Injured knee error was more propitious to male professional

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footballers than the uninjured knee. Many studies have shown that the error in proprioception
is related to knee joint injury. Footballers must be trained to prevent knee injuries in this
respect (Bisciotti et al. 2019). In this study some noticeable limitation can also be found. One
of the major limitation of the study is lack of sufficient data on the psychometric properties of
knee proprioception measurement techniques. Hence, to avoid these type of error in future
clinicians or researchers should consider using knee JPS or TTDPM data during assessment
of a rehabilitation programme while assessing the proprioception measurement through
Biodex dynamometer test.
Conclusion
As per the aim and objectives of this study, the purpose of this discussion was to
interpret the numerical findings into the qualitative discussion wile comparing the results
with previous researches, while presenting whether knee proprioception of injured player is
significantly different than the un-injured player and the alternative hypotheses. According to
the above discussion it can be said that the null hypothesis has been rejected and the
alternative hypothesis has been accepted. Therefore, knee proprioception of injured player is
significantly different than the un-injured player and the alternative hypotheses. The study
has also found some unexpected results, when it comes to the ability if knee proprioception of
a particular group for different angle. This study argued that difference of knee
proprioception is more significant in higher degree compared to lower degree for a particular
participants group.
From the anatomical analysis and discussion of the influencing factors it has been
found that the musculoskeletal movement required for football playing depends on Lateral
Collateral Ligament (LCL) and Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL). At the same time, in this
case, after receiving a sensation of mechanical movement of the tissues and after receiving

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the post sensory motor signals to the target tendons of knee area, the weakness of the Lateral
Collateral Ligament (LCL) and Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL), restricts the associate
musculoskeletal system to function properly for positioning the lower limb at correct angle. It
has been also found that knee injury is the second frequent injury among football players.
Most of the knee injuries were anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures in comparison with
other injured player groups. For further study to avoid these type of error in future clinicians
or researchers should consider using knee JPS or TTDPM data during assessment of a
rehabilitation programme while assessing the proprioception measurement through Biodex
dynamometer test.

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