biomechanics, gymnastics, injury prevention, wrist

This study aims to investigate the influence of hand position on the biomechanical risk factors at the wrist during the back handspring in gymnastics. Three national level female gymnasts performed five back handspring trials with ?inward?, ?parallel? and ?outward? hand positions. Synchronised three-dimensional kinematic and kinetic data were collected and inverse dynamics analysis performed to calculate internal wrist joint kinetics. Increased vertical (3.33 ? 0.82 BW) and medio-lateral (1.74 ? 0.42 BW) force at the wrist joint during the outward hand position may lead to increased injury risk and should be discouraged in practice. However, reduced impact forces at the wrist during the inward hand position may lead to reduced wrist stress, thus lower injury potential during the back handspring.