(40) THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COUNTERMOVEMENT JUMP BRAKING AND PROPULSION PHASES WITH SPRINT SPEEDS AMONG NCAA DIVISION III SOCCER ATHLETES

Purpose: To examine the relationships between countermovement jump (CMJ) force-time characteristics and sprint speeds among National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III male soccer athletes.

Methods: 38 NCAA Division III male soccer athletes (age: 19.0 ± 1.2 years, Height: 178.2 ± 6.6 cm, weight: 72.8 ± 9.0 kg) participated in this study as part of a long-term athlete monitoring program. After completing a standardized warm-up, the athletes performed two maximal effort CMJs on force plates. The force-time data from the force plates were used to calculate CMJ braking mean force (BMF) and duration (BDur) and propulsion mean force (PMF) and duration (PDur). Following the CMJ testing, the athletes performed two maximal effort 20-m sprint trials from a staggered stance on an indoor track. Sprint times at 10- and 20-m were recorded by laser timing gates and were converted to sprint velocity by dividing the distance by each athlete’s times.  The averages of each variable CMJ and sprint testing were used for correlational analyses. Pearson correlation coefficients and coefficients of determination (R²) were used to examine the relationships between the CMJ force-time characteristics and sprinting performance.

Results: The mean and standard deviation and the relationships between CMJ and sprint performance variables are displayed in Table 1. When comparing CMJ variables to 0-10 meter and 10-20 meter sprint speeds, none of the relationships were found to be statistically significant. However, a moderate relationship was displayed between BMF and 0-10m sprinting velocity with 10.2% of the variance being explained. Small relationships existed between PMF and 0-10m and 10-20m sprinting velocities in which 6.6% and 1.1% of the variance was explained, respectively. The remaining relationships between variables were trivial in nature and explained less than 1% of the 0-10m and 10-20m velocity variances.

Conclusions:  Despite a lack of statistical significance, a moderate relationship between BMF and 0-10m sprinting velocity was present. The remaining relationships between CMJ and sprinting velocities were trivial to small and explained very little variance.  Practical Applications: When conducting thorough athlete monitoring, both the CMJ and sprint tests should be utilized to provide an accurate representation of each athlete’s abilities. The current findings suggest that both the CMJ and sprinting are distinct skills whose performances may not necessarily relate to each other in NCAA Division III male soccer players. However, given the frequent use of CMJ testing in athlete monitoring, it is suggested that researchers continue to examine the relationships of the current variables with other performance characteristics of collegiate athletes.
 

Acknowledgements: None