Jumping and Hopping in Elite and Amateur Orienteering Athletes and Correlations to Sprinting and Running

Abstract

Jumping and hopping are used to measure lower-body muscle power, stiffness, and stretch-shortening-cycle utilization in sports, with several studies reporting correlations between such measures and sprinting and/or running abilities in athletes. Neither jumping and hopping nor correlations with sprinting and/or running have been examined in orienteering athletes. The authors investigated squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), standing long jump (SLJ), and hopping performed by 8 elite and 8 amateur male foot-orienteering athletes (29 ± 7 y, 183 ± 5 cm, 73 ± 7 kg) and possible correlations to road, path, and forest running and sprinting performance, as well as running economy, velocity at anaerobic threshold, and peak oxygen uptake (VO(2peak)) from treadmill assessments. During SJs and CMJs, elites demonstrated superior relative peak forces, times to peak force, and prestretch augmentation, albeit lower SJ heights and peak powers. Between-groups differences were unclear for CMJ heights, hopping stiffness, and most SLJ parameters. Large pairwise correlations were observed between relative peak and time to peak forces and sprinting velocities; time to peak forces and running velocities; and prestretch augmentation and forest-running velocities. Prestretch augmentation and time to peak forces were moderately correlated to VO(2peak). Correlations between running economy and jumping or hopping were small or trivial. Overall, the elites exhibited superior stretch-shortening-cycle utilization and rapid generation of high relative maximal forces, especially vertically. These functional measures were more closely related to sprinting and/or running abilities, indicating benefits of lower-body training in orienteering.