Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Kinesiology

Major Professor

Joshua T. Weinhandl

Committee Members

Joshua T. Weinhandl, Songning Zhang, Dawn P. Coe, Louis M. Rocconi

Abstract

The injury risk inherent to soccer can be affected by external training loads and intrinsic factors. These intrinsic factors (sex, mass, strength, coordination, etc.) in young athletes can be rapidly altered the near their peak height velocity (PHV) during puberty, modifying their movement complexity and, potentially, their injury risk. While quantification of movement complexity through multiscale entropy analysis have been used in past biomechanical investigations, no studies have incorporated this analysis on tibial accelerometry signals collected in these maturing athletes. The purpose of this study is to collect tibial acceleration data from youth soccer athletes during several discrete drills and determine discrete acceleration metrics or signal complexity differs across athletes based on their relation to PHV, sex, or over the course of a season. Some limited significant time fixed effects on tibial movement complexity were found during only two drills in our protocol, while several drills showed significant effects for PHV, sex, and time on acceleration peaks and integrals. However, in the case of both complexity and discrete acceleration statistical analyses, subsequent model performance and comparison to the null model suggests that the predictive power of our independent variables is limited in these contexts. The findings of this study lay the groundwork for future research examining tibial acceleration signals as they relate to external loading complexity and magnitude within the lower-extremities.

Comments

I amended the table headers so they continue onto subsequent pages where necessary, but I am unaware of how to add "Table X continued" at the top of the page as you wish in your comments

I also was slightly confused regarding chapter headings being on the same page as introduction headings and body text, etc., but I think I fixed it

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