Changes in Countermovement Jump Height in Elite Volleyball Players in Two Competitive Seasons: Consideration on the Technique of Execution of the Jump

Abstract

Monitoring athletes’ well-being during the competitive season is a common practice in team sports, and countermovement jump (CMJ) is often introduced to monitor neuromuscular fatigue of the players. In this pilot observational study, we aimed to evaluate changes in jump performance in professional volleyball players during their two competitive seasons after introducing different executions of the jump test. Different execution of the flight phase of the jumps was introduced as a differentiating factor. Nine professional volleyball players (age: 23.3 ± 1.9 years; volleyball training experience: 10.4 ± 1.9 years; body height: 192.3 ± 8.3) performed CMJ measurements 1–2 times a week on a contact mat during two competitive seasons, and a total number of 1008 jumps (540 in season 1 and 468 in season 2) was collected. Players’ CMJ height significantly decreased (p < 0.05) in season 2 by approximately 4%, and standard deviation of the data reduced by approximately 30%. Our study confirms that the testing procedures need to be rigorous as different execution of the jump may be associated with changes in CMJ height. Execution of the jump should not be interchangeable using the same measurement device, and the technique introduced in season 2 seems to be more appropriate for this measurement device.