Biological engineering student teams up with Movement Sciences department to research injury prevention for ROTC cadets

U of I research could create a healthier U.S. military

Department of Movement Sciences Associate Professor Joshua Bailey has been waiting four years to reboot his research on injury risk profiles and prevention since it was shut down by COVID-19 in 2020.

Rafe Richardson, a junior majoring in biological engineering and an Air Force ROTC cadet, wanted to learn more about musculoskeletal injuries while pursuing his dream of becoming a doctor.

Together, their research through the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences could help ROTC programs across the country keep their cadets healthier by teaching them how to move more effectively.

“Both the Army and Air Force are employing civilian strength conditioning coaches on some of their bases because they see the value in this type of program,” Bailey said. “Our goal is to get cadets at the ROTC level to focus on this training so they start with a solid understanding of how to stay healthy.”

Bailey and Richardson recently concluded their first wave of research, where they studied the movement of 50 Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine ROTC cadets from University of Idaho and Washington State University.

Jumping right in

Being the son of an Air Force pilot, Richardson knew all about the physical demands of being in the military long before he thought about joining ROTC. 

After listening to Bailey speak at an Air Force ROTC event earlier this year, he chased the professor down to talk about the specifics of Bailey’s study. It was exactly the kind of research opportunity Richardson was seeking.

They spent the past several months recording and analyzing movements by cadets participating in the study. Cadets performed lunging, squatting and jumping exercises at U of I’s Integrated Sports Medicine Movement Analysis Lab (ISMMAL) so their mechanics could be recorded and studied. 

“What we’re doing is testing their strength and their movement ability,” Richardson said. “We look at the way their entire skeleton moves as they land. We’re measuring their ground reaction force – how their feet and legs are interacting with the ground.”

Because military members are constantly in motion, they are susceptible to movement-related injuries. Bailey and Richardson are looking for traits that could predict a cadet’s specific risk factor for injury.

“When their foot hits the ground, we can see exactly how much force they’re exerting,” Richardson said. “We can also see how that force moves up their leg based on their movement patterns. From there, you can calculate how much stress is being put on joints, hips, knees and ankles.”

In addition to sharing data from this study with interested ROTC programs around the U.S., Bailey plans on including this information in an application submission for a U.S. Department of Defense grant in 2025 that is designed to address the physical and mental health of members of the U.S. military.

Basic understanding

Richardson and Bailey will run a second session of analyzing ground reaction force in ROTC cadets during the Spring ’25 semester before moving on to phase two of their study – intervention with cadets.

Based on data provided by cadets regarding self-reported injuries or health issues, the U of I team will use the information they’ve compiled to create profiles for each cadet that gives them suggestions to reduce injury risk.

“These tasks we are doing with the cadets have optimal movement patterns to them,” Bailey said. “Deviations from the optimal movement pattern may indicate either weaknesses or risk factors for injury. We want to show them how to improve their movement patterns, which would then decrease the chance of injury.”

In basic training, you hear about people getting injuries from performing routine exercises. It’s not because they are in horrible programs – it’s because they haven’t been taught about biomechanics and how to correct their movement. So hopefully our study can start that conversation. Rafe Richardson, junior

A concept Bailey is eager to encourage with ROTC programs is starting out with strength training that is less strenuous on the body. 

“I see a lot of positive results from basic balance and movement exercises rather than just power or weight training,” he said. “Especially if we have identified that a certain cadet has movement issues, we should aim to correct that first before we ask them to increase the load on their body with weight training.”

Richardson learned about this project because of his involvement in ROTC, but as someone who has medical school in his sights, he found this project to be the perfect way to combine his passions for the military and the medical world.

“I would love to make a large impact in ROTC and other training programs with this study,” said Richardson, who received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship from U of I’s Office of Undergraduate Research for his contributions to this project. “In basic training, you hear about people getting injuries from performing routine exercises. It’s not because they are in horrible programs – it’s because they haven’t been taught about biomechanics and how to correct their movement. So hopefully our study can start that conversation.”

Article by David Jackson, University Communications and Marketing

Photos by Melissa Hartley, University of Idaho Visual Productions, and James Wagenblast and Milan Shirakawa

Published in December 2024