INVESTIGATING KEY FACTORS FOR FEMALE PLAYERS TO GENERATE COMPARABLE INTERACTION TORQUE TO THAT OF MALE PLAYERS

We aimed to clarify the kinetic strategy of female players to achieve comparable motion-dependent interaction torque to that of male players during soccer instep kicking. The kicking leg motion of female and male players was captured at 500 Hz. The interaction torque was decomposed into two components due to the kicking leg and the support leg actions using the procedure of Inoue et al., (2013). Female players exhibited significantly smaller counter-clockwise (positive) interaction torque due to the support leg action while the clockwise (negative) component due to the kicking leg action was significantly suppressed in the latter part of kicking than male players. Our findings suggest coaches and female players should pay more attention to the kicking leg posture during the latter part of the leg swing to maintain their effective action of the interaction torque

DIFFERENCES IN LOWER LEG KINETIC OF SOCCER INSTEP KICKING BETWEEN FEMALE AND MALE PLAYERS

We aimed to clarify the difference in lower leg segment kinetics of soccer instep kicking between female and male players. Instep kicking of seven female and seven male university soccer players were captured at 500Hz. There was no significant difference between female and male groups for peak forward lower leg angular velocity while female players exhibited significantly smaller angular impulse due to knee joint moment than that of male players. On the other hand, female players showed comparable angular impulse due to the interaction moment acting on the lower leg to that of male players. It can be considered that the interaction moment acting on the lower leg of female players may compensate their reduced exertion of knee joint moment during kicking, thereby achieving comparable lower leg angular velocity to that of male players