Abstract

Females who participate in sports that involve jumping and cutting are four to six times more likely to suffer a serious knee injury than their male counterparts. PUrPose: This preliminary study investigated the effectiveness of a low-impact jump-training program on peak ground reaction forces (GRF), as well as jump height, landing velocity, and landing impulse for both collegiate and recreational athletes. It was hypothesized that the jump heights would increase for the trained groups while the GRF values would decrease after the intervention. METHODS: Female collegiate soccer players (SOC) and recreational athletes (REC) were recruited and placed into either a control (C) ((n=3, SOC C 19.4+1.5 yrs; n=3, REC C 22.2+1.1 yrs)) or training (T) (n=5, SOC T 18.6+.9 yrs; n=5 REC T 21+.6) group. Participants in the training groups completed 12 training sessions (4 weeks at 3X per week). Ground reaction forces (GRF) were measured with a 600 Hz Bertec force plate before and after a jump training intervention for the training group and at the beginning and end of the 12 week time period for the control groups. Each subject completed 3 maximum vertical jumps during both pre and post testing sessions and the highest jump was used in the analysis since they were instructed to perform a maximal vertical jump. RESULTS: A 4X2 (group × time) repeated measures ANOVA indicated a significant interaction (p < 0.05) for jump height, landing velocity andjump time. Follow up of the data indicated the training increased jump height and decreased peak landing forces for the REC T athletes, while the SOC T group only decreased their peak landing forces, but increased their jump velocity. There were no changes observed in the control groups for GRF, and the jump heights decreased. CONCLUSIONS: Decreases were observed in GRF for both trained groups; however, changes were larger for the REC T group. Data suggest that a jump training program may increase jump height while reducing ground reaction forces in female athletes. These improvement trends should increase with a longer jump training program.Table

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