AI-Based Electromyographic Analysis of Single-Leg Landing for Injury Risk Prediction in Taekwondo Athletes

Background/Objectives: Improper landing mechanics in Taekwondo can lead to non-contact injuries such as ankle sprains and knee ligament tears, highlighting the necessity for objective methods to evaluate landing stability and injury risk. Electromyography (EMG) enables the examination of muscle activation patterns; however, conventional analyses based on simple averages have limited predictive value. Methods: This study analyzed EMG signals recorded during single-leg landings (45 cm height) in 30 elite male Taekwondo athletes. Participants were divided into regular exercise groups (REG, n = 15) and non-exercise groups (NEG, n = 15). Signals were segmented into two phases. Eight features were extracted per muscle per phase. Classification models (Random Forest, XGBoost, Logistic Regression, Voting Classifier) were used to classify between groups, while regression models (Ridge, Random Forest, XGBoost) predicted continuous muscle activation changes as injury risk indicators. Results: The Random Forest Classifier achieved an accuracy of 0.8365 and an F1-score of 0.8547. For regression, Ridge Regression indicated high performance (R² = 0.9974, MAE = 0.2620, RMSE = 0.4284, 5-fold CV MAE: 0.2459 ± 0.0270), demonstrating strong linear correlations between EMG features and outcomes. Conclusions: The AI-enabled EMG analysis can be used as an objective measure of the study of the individual landing stability and risk of injury in Taekwondo athletes, but its clinical application has to be validated in the future by biomechanical injury indicators and prospective cohort studies.