Comparative analysis of knee and ankle joint biomechanics during single-leg landing in bilateral lay-ups: Influence of hand dominance in basketball players

This study examined how hand dominance influences lower-limb biomechanics during single-leg landing in bilateral lay-ups. Because the lay-up is a high-frequency basketball skill that imposes substantial impact loading and requires rapid neuromuscular control, side-dependent landing strategies may contribute to asymmetrical joint loading and elevate injury risk, particularly at the knee and ankle. However, empirical evidence clarifying how hand dominance interacts with lay-up side to shape landing biomechanics remains limited. Thirty male collegiate basketball players (15 left-hand dominant, 15 right-hand dominant) performed standardized right-hand lay-ups with left-leg landing and left-hand lay-ups with right-leg landing on force plates under 3D motion capture. Vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) and sagittal-plane knee and ankle kinematics and kinetics were analyzed using 2 × 2 mixed ANOVA and SnPM1D over the normalized stance phase. Left-hand–dominant players exhibited higher VGRF first peaks (p = 0.001), second peaks (p = 0.012) and total impulse (p < 0.001), with pronounced side-to-side asymmetry, whereas right-hand–dominant players showed more symmetrical loading between lay-up directions. At the joint level, significant Handedness and Side interactions were found for sagittal ROM, peak flexion, joint moments and power. Left-hand–dominant athletes relied on greater knee flexion, higher knee extensor moments and larger ankle and knee power on their preferred support leg. SnPM1D revealed time-dependent differences clustered in early–mid stance (impact attenuation) and late stance (push-off).These findings indicate that hand dominance systematically reorganizes proximal–distal coordination and load distribution during lay-up landings, and that monitoring asymmetry, particularly in left-hand–dominant athletes, may be important for targeted training and injury prevention.