Comparison of knee mechanics among risky athletic motions for noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injury.

It has been suggested that noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injury commonly occurs during sports requiring acute deceleration or landing motion and that female athletes are more likely to sustain the injury than male athletes. The purpose of this study was to make task-to-task and male-female comparisons of knee kinematics and kinetics in several athletic activities. Three-dimensional knee kinematics and kinetics were investigated in 20 recreational athletes (10 males, 10 females) while performing hopping, cutting, turning, and sidestep and running (sharp deceleration associated with a change of direction).