Functional movement screen differences between male and female young judokas athletes

Background and Study Aim: The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) test has been used in different sports to identify the alterations and asymmetries in the basic movement patterns of the athletes, although it has not been analysed as widely in children population, and even less in judo. The cognitive objective of this study was knowledge about the basic motor competence and the risk of injury in children practicing judo through the evaluation of fundamental movement patterns using the FMS test, and to establish a comparison between genders. Material and Methods: Thirty young judokas (16 girls and 14 boys) participated in the study (mean +/- SD; age: 13.93 +/- 0.96 years old; weight: 58.60 +/- 11.32 kg; height: 162.67 +/- 9.60 cm; BMI: 22.29 +/- 2.77 kg/m(2)). The performance of each participant was digitally recorded by two cameras, one in each plane (frontal and sagittal), and was later analysed jointly by two evaluators who are experts in the use of FMS. Results: The girls obtained higher scores on the sum of the seven tests, compared to boys (16.00 +/- 1.79 vs. 13.57 +/- 2.59; p = 0.005). In particular, girls scored significantly better than boys in the deep squat, the rotary stability and the active straight leg raise tasks (p<0.05). The boys scored statistically significantly higher than girls in the trunk stability push up task (p<0.05). Conclusions: The girls scored higher on most tasks, indicating better fundamental movement patterns. In addition, most girls scored above 14 points, while most boys scored at or below 14 points, which may indicate decreased motor competence and increased risk of injury in boys.