Fig. 1.

A photo sequence of the key spatiotemporal features during a pre-planned change of direction (COD) pivot manoeuvre. The steps preceding the final foot plant of COD play a key role in decelerating the system’s centre-of-mass for subsequent propulsion into the new intended direction. Not only does this facilitate effective COD performance, but it also serves to reduce multi-planar knee joint loading during the final foot plant. Further, during unanticipated CODs, the reduced time to make preparatory whole-body postural adjustments may potentially contribute to poor frontal and transverse kinetics and kinematics, and subsequently heighten the likely hazardous knee-joint loading experienced during the final foot plant