Quantitative analysis of the muscle activity during instep kick

Abstract

    The purpose of this study was to investigate quantitatively changes of the muscle activity on the whole body during the instep kicking. Twenty-seven soccer players participated in a shooting task consisting of ten kicks. They were classified into two groups (high-skilled and low-skilled) according to the performance of the shooting task. The results indicated that the high-skilled group relaxed trapezius activity just before the impact stage and tensioned the muscles on the leg efficiently. Our findings suggest that a ratio of the EMG activities during a kicking is valid for the quantitative analysis of the muscle activity as well as the integrated EMG value.