Abstract
The purpose of this study was to compare the kinematics of assisted and unassisted plyometric training of vertical jumping and rebounding activities following a six-week training intervention. 13 youth males from a professional football academy completed six weeks of either unassisted (n = 6) or band-assisted (n = 7) plyometric training sessions twice a week during their competitive season. Pre- and post-assessments of counter-movement jump (CMJ) height, 50 cm drop-jump (DJ50) ground contact time (GCT), jump height and reactive strength index (RSI), and submaximal-hopping (SMH) GCT, jump height and RSI were compared. Pre- and post-assessment ankle angle at touch-down (TD), peak flexion (PF) and mid-flight (MF) were also analysed for the submaximal-hop test only. Following training, significant main effects of time were observed for CMJ height, DJ50 GCT and MF ankle angle (p < 0.05) and a significant effect of group was observed for DJ50 RSI (p < 0.05). These results suggest that both unassisted and assisted plyometric training may be useful for enhancing the kinematics and technical performance of plyometric activities in a youth male football population.
Highlights
These results suggest that both unassisted and assisted plyometric training may be useful for enhancing the kinematics and technical performance of plyometric activities in a youth male football population
The interaction effect between time and group was non-significant (F1,11 = 1.01, p > 0.05, ηp2 = 0.08), suggesting that the change in mean counter-movement jump (CMJ) height between the two testing sessions were comparable for the assisted plyometric training (APT) and unassisted plyometric training (UPT)
Whilst the interaction effect between group and time for mean reactive strength index (RSI) did not reach statistical significance (F1,11 = 3.72, p = 0.08, ηp2 = 0.25), it is noteworthy that the UPT displayed an increase from 1.59 ± 0.46 to 1.98 ± 0.36 mm.ms-1, whereas the APT displayed a slight decrease from 1.36 ± 0.44 to 1.34 ± 0.29 mm.ms-1
Summary
Plyometric training is widely used in athletic development and it has been associated with various musculoskeletal, neuromuscular and performance adaptations [1], : improved vertical [2,3,4,5,6] and horizontal [3,4,5] jump ability, enhanced sprint and agility performance [2,3,4, 7], increased endurance [3, 5], and injury risk reduction [8]. Additional performance adaptations, including improvements in a change of direction ability, balance, kicking velocity and endurance have been reported following six weeks of combined vertical and horizontal plyometric training in youth football athlete populations [3, 4]
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