Strength and limitations 30

The research was done on relatively young group of participants; there are not many studies that have been conducted before the participants’ puberty. The main emphasis of this study was the gender difference but what can be evaluated additionally is the difference that occurs during puberty, i.e. the difference between prepubescent and adolescents, especially if this group is measured again in 5 years. There are not many studies that have been published regarding muscle activation of gluteus medius, usually the thigh muscles are the main emphasis but recently more interest has been focused towards the hip, the pelvis and lower back (37, 41-43). Since noncontact ACL injuries usually occur in a closed kinetic chain, the muscle function of the trunk and pelvis region could affect the muscle function, kinematics and kinetics of the lower extremities.

Two positive factors regarding the method of the research are the fact that sEMG electrodes were wireless and the conduction of the fatigue protocol. Using wireless electrodes results in more natural movement when doing the drop jump and the cutting maneuver. If there are cords around the participant it is more likely that the movement would change when trying to avoid stepping on them and getting them out of the way. The sliding on the slide board is a closed kinetic movement where the abductors of the hip are working overtime, concentrically, when pushing off the bumpers on each side, eccentrically when stopping at the bumpers and isometrically when stabilizing during the slide. Another factor that is both strength and a limitation is the choice of movements examined. The drop jump and the cutting maneuver are widely used so there are a lot of studies that it can be compared to. They are also rather easy to perform; hence children of 11-12 years old can execute them. A limitation considering the movement tasks is that because they are easy to perform, especially in surroundings of a research lab, they might not be challenging enough to obtain the activation pattern that is seen during a football or a handball game. And also, the question is whether the tasks, performed in this study in a research lab, is difficult enough to differentiate between the subjects that have bad muscle activation pattern compared to good muscle activation pattern. Therefore, we have to take into consideration the protective factor of the surroundings that these measurements are done in where it is difficult in real circumstances. But that applies to all researches that are not done in the field of battle.

The biggest limitation of the research was the low number of males; a number of 20 males would have increased the external validity of the study. The number of males that participated in the research was considerably higher but due to technical problems the sEMG recordings were not

available for all of them. Another limitation is that the subjects that participated in the study might be the athletes that had better motor control because some of the children or parents declined their participation on the grounds that they were not good enough, even though we told them that we wanted everyone to take part. On the other hand it might be an advantage if those that participated are more likely to continue participating in their sport and then hopefully they will be measured again after puberty. There was also a question if still younger children should be measured, since females at 11-12 years of age are often more mature than males at that age, but because of difficulties in understanding the instructions and the sizes of the equipment, this age was considered optimal. A limitation regarding the results was the lack of kinematic data to be able to evaluate whether the adduction and internal rotation are reduced in regard to the activation pattern seen on the sEMG. But hopefully that information’s will be processed later and then these results can be integrated with the kinematics. It is likely that some of the recordings have noise from adjacent muscles, but when using the sEMG the signal can never be perfectly isolated for one muscle.

In future studies it would be optimal to evaluate the activation pattern of the gluteus medius on 17- 20 years old, to evaluate how the activation pattern changes during puberty and possibly, have some of the subject undergo a prevention program. Plyometric and strength training combined with other training exercises such as proprioception, body awareness, stretching and decision-making could be used as an intervention. After that program neuromuscular activation of gluteus medius should be evaluated again. Subsequently, evaluate the changes in kinematics as well. It would also be interesting to evaluate how other muscles affecting the hip, such as gluteus maximus, the external rotators and tensor fascia lata along with the muscles of the lower back would be affected by a prevention program. Further research on the muscle activation pattern, kinematics and kinetics concerning the pelvis and lower back could also be interesting to evaluate in regard to effects on the these factors of the knee. The aim would be to identify if certain movements of the pelvis and lower back might change the knees dynamics and also the ACL loading.