Acute effects of motor-cognitive injury-prevention warm-ups on unplanned jump-landing performance in team-sport athletes: A randomized crossover trial

In team-sports, agility, perceptual-cognitive abilities, and executive functions are crucial for performance and injury prevention. Incorporating motor-cognitive demands into neuromuscular warm-ups may improve coping with cognitively demanding movement situations, requiring time-constrained decision-making and reactive responses. This randomized three-arm crossover study investigated the acute effects of the Prevent Injury and Enhance Performance (PEP) warm-up and two adapted motor-cognitive versions (PEP+; PEP-SKILLCOURT) on pre-planned (n = 6) and unplanned countermovement jump-landings, with the landing side cued only after take-off (n = 16). Eighteen team-sport athletes (age: 23 ± 3 years; height: 181 ± 11.4 cm; weight: 75.6 ± 10.4 kg; 5 females) completed the three warm-ups on separate days. PEP+ included cognitive exercises targeting visuomotor processing and executive functions. PEP-SKILLCOURT incorporated reactive agility exercises using the SKILLCOURT device. After each warm-up, participants performed the jump-landing task on a capacitive pressure plate. Landing performance was assessed using biomechanical and error-related outcomes, including peak vertical ground reaction force (pVGRF), time to pVGRF, center of pressure path length (CoP), time to stabilization (TTS), standing errors, and decision errors. Linear and generalized mixed models were used to analyze biomechanical outcomes and error counts, respectively, adjusting for flight time. No significant carryover effects occurred (p > .05). Landing condition significantly affected pVGRF and CoP (−4 to +17%, p = .003–.004) as well as error rates (p = .002). Post hoc tests indicated lower pVGRF, greater CoP fluctuations (p = .041 to <.001), and more errors (p = .037 to <.001) during unplanned landings. After Holm adjustment, no significant treatment or treatment × landing condition interaction effects remained. However, exploratory trends suggested lower landing loads and reduced CoP fluctuations after PEP+. Unplanned conditions resulted in poorer landing control and more erroneous landings, indicating reduced task performance. Larger trials are needed to confirm the exploratory trends favoring PEP+ and examine joint-specific biomechanics relevant to injury risk.