The warm up technique modification programme: An effective anterior cruciate ligament injury mitigation strategy to improve cutting and jump-movement quality in soccer players.

The objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Safe Landing (SL), a 6-week technique-modification (TM) programme, on cutting and jump-landing movement quality in football players. In a non-randomized design, 32 male semi-professional football players from two Spanish clubs participated in the study: one served as the control group (CG,  = 11), while the other performed the SL ( = 15). Performance and movement quality of drop vertical jump and 70º change of direction (COD70) were evaluated through 2D video footage pre- and post-intervention. In such tasks, the Landing Error Scoring System for first (LESS1) and second (LESS2) landings, and the Cutting Movement Assessment Score (CMAS) were used for assessing movement quality. Pre-to-post changes and baseline-adjusted ANCOVA were used. Medium-to-large differences between groups at post-test were shown in CMAS, LESS1 and LESS2 ( < 0.082, ղ = 0.137-0.272), with small-to-large improvements in SL ( < 0.046, 0.546-1.307), and CG remaining unchanged ( > 0.05) pre-to-post. In COD70 performance, large differences were found between groups ( < 0.047, ղ = 0.160-0.253), with SL maintaining performance ( > 0.05, 0.039-0.420), while CG moderately decreasing performance ( = 0.024, 0.753) pre-to-post. The SL is a feasible and effective TM program to improve movement quality and thus potential injury risk in cutting and landing, while not negatively affecting performance.