Ultimate Frisbee (UF) is a new team-sport, with more than 1.5 million practitioners worldwide. It is characterized by changes of direction, accelerations / decelerations, jumps and landings. It has been found that the incidence and prevalence of lower body injuries is 68% of total injuries and 73% are hamstring injuries.
PURPOSE: To determine hamstring neuromuscular fatigue in UF players.
METHODS: A descriptive observational study with analytical component was performed in 18 elite male UF players (age: 26 ± 5 years, weight: 67.5 ± 7kg, height: 1.73 ± 0.05m, BMI: 22 +/- 2), who participated and won the Colombian Interclubes National Tournament 2019. The strength of the hamstrings was evaluated using force platforms with isometric hamstring test, each player performed a maximum isometric contraction in supine position, 90º hip flexion and knee of the analyzed leg. The athlete exerts maximum force with the heel on the force platform for 3 seconds. 3 attempts were made with each leg with 30 seconds rest between each attempt, at the start of the tournament and at the end of the tournament. The athletes played 8 90-minute matches during 4 days of competition. A statistical analysis was performed using the student T test and the Wilcoxon test.
RESULTS: Significant differences were found between the pre and post-tournament evaluation in the variables of peak vertical force of the right leg (314 ± 51.5 vs 256 ± 38.5 N p = <0.001), compared with the peak vertical force of the left leg (272 ±43.5 vs 246 ± 46.6 N p = 0.4) that had a non statistically significant change. It was also found that the force in the right leg had significant differences at 100 ms (113 ± 37.6 vs 95 ±40.1 p = 0.02) 150 ms (165 ± 52.8 vs 133 ± 53.9 p = 0.002) and 200 ms (200 ± 57.3 vs 167 ± 57.5 p = 0.0004).
CONCLUSIONS: The decrease found in hamstring peak vertical force corresponds to the fatigue that athletes present and accumulate during the tournament and predispose to be a risk factor for hamstring and anterior cruciate ligament injury due to changes in direction and unipodal landings. They are frequent in this sport. Likewise, the predisposition of the right leg as the dominant leg increases the incidence of injuries in the knee joint compromising dynamic stability