Knee Joint Proprioceptive Acuity and Kinematic Control in Relation to Motor Competency in 13 to 14-Year-Old Adolescents

Abstract Motor competence (MC) is a key component reflecting one’s ability to execute motor tasks and is an important predictor of physical fitness. For adolescents experiencing rapid growth changes, understanding the factors affecting MC is pertinent to the development of more sophisticated sporting skills. Previous studies considered the influence of poor proprioceptive ability on MC, however, the relationship between lower limb proprioception and MC is unknown, and the relationship between kinematic control and MC is not well understood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine to what extent lower limb proprioception (according to knee joint position sense), and kinematic control relate to MC in adolescents. This study was a cross-sectional design. Young people (n = 427, 196 girls and 231 boys) aged 13 to 14 years were recruited. A movement reproduction task was used to assess joint position sense and quality of performance, while the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (mABC-2) was used to assess MC. In addition, this study categorized 80 adolescents who met the criteria according to their mABC-2 scores as the Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) group, while 231 adolescents were categorized as Typically Developed (TD), to further compare motor competency. Results showed that kinematic data, specifically normalized jerk, showed a significant correlation with MC. No correlation between knee joint position sense and MC. No group differences between DCD and TD were found. From these results, it may be concluded that rather than proprioception, there is a greater association between MC and kinematic control and sensorimotor integration.Clinical trial registration number : NCT03150784