Inter-Limb Jump Asymmetries and Their Association with Sport-Specific Performance in Young Male and Female Swimmers.

Max I Phukan,Chris Bishop,Rohit K Thapa,Helmi Chaabene,Rodrigo Ramirez-Campillo,Gopal Kumar

doi:10.3390/ijerph18147324

Abstract

This study aimed to examine inter-limb jump asymmetries and their association with sport-specific performance in young swimmers. Thirty-eight (male, n = 19; female, n = 19) regional/national level young swimmers (age: 12.3 ± 1.2 years; height: 159.6 ± 8.2 cm; body mass: 52.5 ± 9.2 kg) participated in this study. Inter-limb asymmetries were assessed for single-leg countermovement jump (SLCMJ) and single-leg standing long jump (SLSLJ). Sport-specific performance was evaluated using front crawl (i.e., 50 m and 25 m) and front crawl kick (i.e., 50 m and 25 m). The kappa coefficient revealed a “slight” level of agreement (Κ = 0.156, 0.184, and 0.197 for female, male, and all, respectively) between the direction of asymmetry for SLCMJ and SLSLJ, indicating that asymmetries rarely favored the same limb during both tests. A paired sample t-test showed a significant difference (p = 0.025) between asymmetry scores obtained in SLCMJ and SLSLJ. No significant difference was found in asymmetry scores between males and females (p = 0.099 to 0.977). Additionally, no association between asymmetry scores and sport-specific performance was observed (p > 0.05). Our findings highlight the independent nature of inter-limb asymmetries derived from SLCMJ and SLSLJ among young male and female swimmers. Further, our results suggest no association between jumping asymmetries and sport-specific performance.

Highlights

Good-to-excellent reliability (ICC95%confidence interval (CI) lower bound = 0.76 to 0.92) and almost acceptable variability (CV = 5.0 to 11.2%) were shown when the swimmers were grouped based on gender (Table 1)
A kappa coefficient value of 0.197, 0.184 and 0.156 was obtained between SL CMJ and SL SLJ asymmetry direction, which shows that asymmetries rarely favored the same side between the two jump tests, indicating that limb dominance is jump test-dependent
A paired t-test reported a significant difference between SL CMJ and SL SLJ asymmetry magnitude (p = 0.025) with higher scores for SL CMJ compared with SL SLJ

Summary

Introduction

Inter-limb asymmetry refers to the difference in function or performance of one limb relative to the other [1]. These limb differences may be due to the asymmetric motor demands, resulting in functional asymmetric adaptions (e.g., greater Achilles tendon stiffness on the take-off leg for long-jumpers; greater muscle mass in the dominant arm of tennis players) [2] to allow the athletes to perform within their sport [3]. Larger inter-limb asymmetry may increase the risk of non-traumatic injuries among athletes [5,6]. Recent studies reported larger inter-limb asymmetry to be associated with reduced physical performance

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