Lower Limb Joint Coordination and Coordination Variability During Landing: A Scoping Review

Landing requires precise coordination among lower limb joints to absorb impact forces and maintain dynamic stability. Coordination and its variability during landing are influenced by factors such as injury status, training, sex, age, fatigue, and task complexity. Altered coordination patterns may compromise impact absorption and increase injury risk, highlighting the importance of understanding these movement strategies across populations and conditions. This scoping review aimed to map and synthesize the existing literature on lower limb joint coordination and coordination variability during landing tasks across different populations and task conditions. A comprehensive search was conducted across four databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, SPORTDiscus) through November 2024, with additional articles identified through reference screening. Peer-reviewed studies were included if they assessed joint or segmental coordination and/or coordination variability using time-series analyses (such as vector coding, continuous relative phase, and discrete relative phase) during landing tasks in human participants. Formal critical appraisal was not performed, consistent with PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Eighteen studies were thematically grouped into five focus areas: injured/at-risk individuals, training/fatigue interventions, gender differences, age differences, and healthy populations under varied landing conditions. Injured individuals exhibited altered coordination patterns, often showing either rigid or erratic strategies with excessive or reduced variability. Training interventions generally improved coordination stability, whereas fatigue increased variability and disrupted control. Females displayed more constrained patterns and lower coordination variability compared to males, particularly at the knee joint. Children demonstrated greater variability and less refined coordination than adults. Healthy individuals typically showed symmetric adaptable variability. Lower limb joint coordination and its variability during landing are shaped by injury status, fatigue, training, sex, age, and task complexity. These findings highlight the need for consistent methodologies and suggest that coordination analysis can inform injury prevention, rehabilitation, and targeted training strategies to optimize landing performance and safety.