technique, fundamental skills, upper limbs, injury prevention, coaching

The aim of the study was to determine sex differences in the key elbow and wrist joint injury risk factors during different round-off (RO) techniques performed by young male and female gymnasts. Eight male and female young gymnasts performed 30 successful trials of RO with different hand positions (parallel [10], T-shape [10] and reverse [10]). Synchronized kinematic and kinetic data were collected for each trial. Two-way repeated measures ANOVA (3×2, technique×sex) and effect-size (ES) were used for statistical analysis. Risk factors including peak vertical ground reaction forces (VGRF), elbow and wrist compression forces, elbow internal adduction moments and elbow extension suggest that a RO in reverse and parallel techniques can be hazardous especially for young female gymnasts compared to male.