Relationships between Horizontal Drop Jump Test and Sprint Performance

Abstract

Researchers and trainers are continually looking for determinants of soccer talent in the youngest and in the relationship between individual motor features relevant to this kind of sport. There is a fundamental consensus in the opinion that sprinting and jumping share a number of similar characteristics in soccer players. To the authors’ knowledge, the majority of the studies has been conducted in adult and young athletes and there has yet to be an analysis with prepubescent male players. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the standing long jump, the three-hop test and sprint performance in prepubescent male soccer players. Material and methods. This study comprised 112 prepubescent soccer players (aged 12.08±1.79 years; height: 154.35±12.50 cm; body mass 43.69±10.28 kg). They were assessed for a 30-m linear sprint with three split sprint times, standing long jump test and three-hop test. The associations and relationships between horizontal jump performance in three-hop test and standing long jump with 0-5m, 10-m, 20-m and 30-m sprint times were investigated. Results and discussion. Correlations and linear regressions were assessed. There were weak and large associations between sprint and jump measures (r = -0.21 to -0.66; p <0.001). Linear regressions all included standing long jump as a predictor, but not three-hop test. There were no regression equations that would predict sprint times from triple hop distance that were significant. In their study of national team female athletes Agar-Newman and Klimstra, (2015) showed contradictory results. In their athletes, triple hop distance was a better predictor than standing long jump of both initial sprint speed, and maximal sprint speed. Thus, this area requires further research to better understand the mechanisms through which both sprint and jump performances are achieved in prepubescent male soccer players. Conclusion. Overall, the results of our study support the use of 30-m linear sprint and horizontal jump performance tests for prepubescent male soccer players. This research showed that sprint times correlated to horizontal jump performance in three-hop test and standing long jump tests. It showed the utility of the standing long jump test to evaluate lower limb performance between prepubescent male soccer players