Vertical jump performance and the relationship with sprint speed at 20 m and 50 m in professional soccer players.

Abstract

Background: Jumping and sprinting are essential skills for several sports, especially for soccer, since they allow to determine neuromuscular function and maximum power of the lower extremities in athletes. This study aimed to establish the relationship between vertical jump performance and sprint speed at 20 m and 50 m in professional soccer players. Methods: This study took place from June 2020 to November 2021 with participants from the U20 category of the Colombian professional team Fortaleza CEIF, and the U18 category of the Brazilian professional team Boston City. The vertical jump was assessed with the countermovement jump (CMJ), squat jump (SJ), and rebound jump (RJ) variants using the WheelerJump jump sensor while the sprint was measured using the Winlaborat horizontal encoder. Results: 200 participants from the selected teams were included in this study. Almost perfect correlations (p < 0,05 – r: 0.97) and excellent coefficients of determination (R2: 0.95 – 0.93) were observed between the reactive force index with the mean height of the different jump protocols and the 50-meter sprint speed, indicating that the higher the altitude and/or the higher the reactive force index, the higher the 50-meter sprint speed. The same behavior was found with the 20-meter race, but the correlation levels (p <0,05, r: 0.63-0.62) and the determination coefficients were lower (0.40). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that, in professional soccer players, long sprint performance like 50 m is strongly correlated and could be accuracy explained by the average height reached in SJ, CMJ, and RJ and by the ability to perform repeated jumps using short contact times, thus increasing the ground reaction forces, which translates into a similar behavior during successive contacts of the player's feet against the ground during the race.