Pilot study: validity and reliability of textile insoles used to measure the characteristics of landing tasks during rehabilitation and artistic gymnastics

OBJECTIVES: Artistic gymnastics is a sport where most athletes start at an early age and training volumes are high. Hence, overuse and acute injuries are frequent due to the load endured during landing tasks. During landing, the ground reaction force (GRF) is up to 15.8 times the body weight and therefore reliable GRF measurements are crucial. The gold standard for GRF measurements are force plates. As force plates are mostly used in a constrained laboratory environment, it is difficult to measure the GRF in representative training settings. Textile insoles (novel GmbH, Munich, Germany) exist, which can be used to measure dynamic GRF. Hence, the motivation of this study is to test the validity and reliability of these insoles during landing tasks. GRF was measured during four different exercises, in two test subjects and compared to concurrent force plate data. RESULTS: Twelve out of 16 statistical parametric mapping plots showed no significant difference between the measured force curves of insoles and force plates. Across conditions, the root mean square error of the maximal vertical GRF was 21 N/kg and an impulse 0.4 Ns/kg. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC 2,1) ranged from 0.02 to 0.76 for maximal vertical GRF and from − 0.34 to 0.76 for impulse. The insoles are a valid measurement tool for GRF curve progression and impulse during landing but underestimate the maximal vertical GRF. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13104-023-06328-9.