Background Studies have reported that females and males exhibit different landing techniques. However, few studies have examined the effect of gender on landing technique in athletes following ACLR.

Objective To compare landing technique between females and males following ACLR during landing from heading-jump (LHJ) and landing from long-jump (LLJ).

Design Cross-sectional study.

Setting Biomechanical laboratory.

Patients (or Participants) Eight female and 8 male recreational athletes.

Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) LHJ included jumping forward to head a soccer ball and landing on the force plates, whereas LLJ included jumping forward and landing on the force plates.

Main Outcome Measurements A 2×2 ANOVA (gender × landing) was performed to evaluate kinematics, kinetics, and electromyography data.

Results A significant interaction was found only for knee flexion angles (F1,14= 12.67, p = 0.003). Pairwise comparisons showed that males landed with decreased knee flexion compared with females during LLJ (p = 0.01). LHJ showed decreased knee flexion compared with LLJ in females (p < 0.001) and males (p = 0.001). Significant main effects of landing were found. LHJ showed decreased hip flexion angles (F1,14= 71.07, p < 0.001), decreased knee flexion angles (F1,14= 95.17, p < 0.001), decreased knee extension moments (F1,14= 20.12, p = 0.001), and decreased plantarflexion moments (F1,14= 34.71, p < 0.001). Also, a significant main effect of gender for hip flexion was found showing that males landed with decreased hip flexion angles (F1,14= 7.17, p = 0.01).

Conclusions LHJ showed greater injury predisposing factors compared with LLJ. Females and males following ACLR showed nearly similar landing biomechanics. However, males landed with smaller hip and knee flexion angles (stiff-landing); therefore, preventative training programs may focus on improving the use of hip and knee joints (soft-landing) during landing to decrease the risk of consequent injuries in males following ACLR.