Measure to Improve; How we use the VALD Force Decks
Ever wondered about how high you can jump or hop? Have you or somebody you know recently injured their ACL? Have you had a lower limb injury, orthopedic surgery, or just want to know about your individual lower limb asymmetries and biomechanics? If so, come and see our team at Back to Bounce Sports Physiotherapy for a thorough assessment with our VALD Force Decks.
Whether you’re recovering from an injury, surgery or want to improve your performance, at Back to Bounce Sports Physiotherapy we employ the VALD Force Decks to measure and analyse movement in order to help you to succeed in your sport. The VALD Force Decks use innovative software to give us real time quick and easy information on stability, strength and lower limb movements along with providing insight into neuromuscular performance, asymmetries and movement strategies. The specific tests that we are utilise for lower limb rehabilitation to name a few, include; countermovement jumps, drop jumps, squat jump, squat assessment, single leg jump, and single leg drop jump.
How does this help rehabilitation?
With this new technology providing us with various metrics, data and insight into your particular presentation, we are able to create a tailored rehabilitation program designed to best suit you as an individual.
The VALD force decks give us valuable information about performance indicators for how you are moving, and even more specifically in relation to the requirements of your sport.
For many field-based sports, we can measure and monitor:
speed,
agility,
endurance,
lower limb strength
explosive jump performance
So how does it work?
The VALD Force Decks incorporate software with the force plates to create a picture of exactly how you are moving. The Force Deck platform is equipped with sensors that measure the Ground Reaction Force (GRF) exerted by performing various activities such as jumping and hopping. The software then visualises the vertical GRF to create a force-time curve. This data is analysed to calculate parameters including velocity, power, and displacement.
Returning to play after ACL Injury
Results from the VALD tests help to inform us on how to manage ACL injuries better than we ever have before. We can identify the asymmetrical differences between left and right sides of the body and whether you are favoring one side over the other. By comparing force production data and movement quality, we can better understand how your body is moving. Not only do these tests offer real-time feedback and results but also provide us with information to structure your program and monitor your improvement and progress throughout your journey.
Following an ACL injury, it is common for someone to elicit symptoms of abnormal neuromuscular patterns and significant physical impairments. The main objective of ACL rehabilitation is to regain joint stability, proprioception, reaction speed, muscle strength and joint control to prevent instability and of course, reduce the risk of re-injury as much as possible. Following an ACL Injury, whether the athlete manages with surgical intervention or conservatively, there are a few aspects that contribute to the return to play decision making process. These include objective information such as numbers and data, clinical reasoning and shared decision-making. In achieving the best possible functional level before being cleared to return to sport, there are many aspects we look at; most of which can be measured using the VALD force decks.
Common deficits following ACL injury:
Muscle weakness
Impaired dynamic joint motion
Rotational control deficits
Excessive frontal plane knee mechanics
Abnormal neuromuscular control
Difficulty returning to sport
Strength asymmetry with uninjured contralateral limb (Di Stasi et al., 2013)
Athletes without an injury
The VALD decks can also give valuable information for athletes that have not sustained an injury. A thorough assessment utilizing the VALD decks can help identify biomechanical changes or deficits that may contribute to an increased risk of injury during the sporting season. The VALD decks give us information about how a patient is tracking and progressing throughout their rehabilitation journey. Depending on their sport, we can tailor certain tests and metrics to specifically look at what areas they need to work on. These include things such as jump height, power, rate of force development and strength asymmetries.
Not only do we use the force decks to analyse athletes, but we also utilize their technology to look at balance and lower limb strength in older populations to screen for falls risk, post operatively following hip and knee surgeries, recovery following ankle sprains and hip and knee osteoarthritis.
If you would like a consultation to measure and analyse your lower limb strength and biomechanics, head to our BOOK NOW page to make an appointment with one of our team members at Back to Bounce.
References:
Di Stasi, S., Myer, G. D., & Hewett, T. E. (2013). Neuromuscular Training to Target Deficits Associated With Second Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 43(11), 777-A11. https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2013.4693
Kotsifaki, R., Korakakis, V., King, E., Barbosa, O., Maree, D., Pantouveris, M., Bjerregaard, A., Luomajoki, J., Wilhelmsen, J., & Whiteley, R. (2023). Aspetar clinical practice guideline on rehabilitation after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 57(9). https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-106158
