Associate Professor Linfield University McMinnville, Oregon, United States
Abstract Details: Neuromuscular fatigue and development should be monitored during a competitive season as indicators could provide physiological insight into training progress and possible movement compensations. A common method of monitoring neuromuscular fatigue is through consistent countermovement jump testing (CMJ) throughout a season.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to track changes to CMJ kinetic and kinematic variables throughout a collegiate competitive soccer season.
Methods: The first team (n = 15) of an NCAA Division III male collegiate soccer program were participants for this study (20.6 ± 1.3 years; 178.4 ± 5.5 cm; 73.2 ± 8.4 kg). Each player performed CMJs every 3-days-before-gameday (GD-3) and 1-day-before-game day (GD-1) during their competitive season. All CMJ were completed at the beginning of each of their normal team in-season strength training sessions. All CMJ performances and metrics were conducted and recorded on a force plate (Hawkin Dynamics, Westbrook, Maine). The specific CMJ metrics tracked regularly were peak propulsive force (PPF), jump height (JH), countermovement depth (CMD), and take off velocity (TOV).
Results: Statistical analyses displayed PPF significantly increasing from GD-3 to GD-1 throughout the season (p = 0.04), while all other variables showed no significant changes. When comparing GD-3 to GD-1 jump metrics, PPF (0.86), JH (0.71) and TOV (0.61) had medium-to-large Pearson product correlation coefficients.
Conclusions: CMJ metrics can be an effective way of monitoring neuromuscular function during the competitive season of soccer players. The significantly higher PPF on GD-1 compared to GD-3 provides evidence that recovery of the neuromuscular system takes several days to return to baseline. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Using force plate technology and CMJ data can help coaches and practitioners make informed decisions to adjust practice and training programs to ensure fitness outweighs fatigue for improved performance and decreased chance of injury. The data can specifically help coaches structure training and recovery sessions to ensure the neuromuscular system is enhanced prior to weekend competitions at the NCAA Division III level.
