Factorial Structure of Trunk Motor Qualities and Their Association with Explosive Movement Performance in Young Footballers.

Jasminka Tomčić,Nejc Šarabon,Goran Marković

doi:10.3390/sports9050067

Jasminka Tomčić, Nejc Šarabon + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/sports9050067

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Abstract

This study examined the factorial structure of trunk motor qualities and their associations with explosive muscular performance of football players. Ninety-one young male football players (age: 15–21 years; body height: 1.78 ± 0.07 m; body mass: 70.3 ± 7.5 kg) performed a series of tests: four standing and four seated isometric trunk strength tests, seven trunk power (medicine ball throwing) tests, four trunk endurance tests and four explosive movement performance tests. A principal component factor analysis (PCA) was used to determine the structure of trunk motor qualities, and correlational analyses were used to assess linear associations between trunk motor qualities and explosive performance. The PCA revealed four independent factors—trunk power, standing and seated isometric trunk strength, and trunk muscle endurance. Only trunk power had significant moderate, logically positive associations with sprint and vertical jump performance (common variance: 25–36%), while other associations between trunk motor factors and explosive movement performance were generally low to very low. These results indicate that trunk muscle functions of football players can be described with three independent motor qualities—trunk power, trunk strength and trunk muscle endurance, with only trunk power being moderately associated with players’ sprinting and jumping performance.

Highlights

The trunk is the central part of the human body and in the musculoskeletal sense includes the spine, pelvis, hip proximal parts of the lower extremities and abdominal structure [1]
The applied principal component factor analysis (PCA) extracted four principal components that accounted for 70% of the variance of all variables related to trunk muscle function
The main findings of this study were as follows: (I) seventy percent of the structure of trunk motor qualities can be explained by the four independent principal components or factors—trunk power, standing isometric trunk strength, trunk muscle endurance, and seated isometric trunk strength; (II) trunk power had significant large positive associations with sprint and vertical jump performance, while other associations between trunk motor factors and explosive movement performance were generally small to moderate; (III) given that the standing and seated isometric trunk strength factors had small negative linear association, and only standing isometric trunk strength had significant, logically positive associations with explosive movement performance, seated trunk strength testing in football players can be considered as redundant

Summary

Introduction

The trunk is the central part of the human body and in the musculoskeletal sense includes the spine, pelvis, hip proximal parts of the lower extremities and abdominal structure [1]. Authors who have studied the trunk or core in the context of sports performance commonly include a wider area emphasizing the importance of the shoulder and pelvis [4]. Given their central location in almost all functional kinetic chains, trunk muscles are responsible for the stability of the spine and pelvis and help generate and transfer force from large to smaller body parts providing proximal stability for distal mobility [1]. Reduced trunk muscle function can affect the occurrence of lower and upper extremity injuries in athletes [6], but it is unclear to what extent the reduced trunk neuromuscular functions contribute to injury risk relative to other factors [5]

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