Bilateral vs. Unilateral Countermovement Jumps: Comparing the Magnitude and Direction of Asymmetry in Elite Academy Soccer Players

Bishop, C., Abbott, W., Brashill, C., Turner, A., Lake, J. P. and Read, P. (2020) Bilateral vs. Unilateral Countermovement Jumps: Comparing the Magnitude and Direction of Asymmetry in Elite Academy Soccer Players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 36 (6). pp. 1660-1666. ISSN 1064-8011

[thumbnail of This is an accepted version of an article published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (JSCR), on 01.05.2022: https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000003679] Text (This is an accepted version of an article published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (JSCR), on 01.05.2022: https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000003679)
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Abstract

The aims of this study were to compare the magnitude and direction of asymmetry in comparable bilateral and unilateral countermovement jumps (CMJs). Forty-five elite academy soccer players from under-23 (n = 15), under-18 (n = 16), and under-16 (n = 14) age groups performed bilateral and unilateral CMJs as part of their routine preseason fitness testing. For the magnitude of asymmetry, no significant differences were evident for any metric between tests. However, the eccentric impulse asymmetry was significantly greater than mean force and concentric impulse in both bilateral and unilateral tests (p < 0.01). For the direction of asymmetry, Kappa coefficients showed poor levels of agreement between test measures for all metrics (mean force = -0.15, concentric impulse = -0.07, and eccentric impulse = -0.13). The mean jump data were also presented relative to the body mass for each group. For the bilateral CMJ, significant differences were evident between groups but showed little consistency in the same group performing better or worse across metrics. For the unilateral CMJ, eccentric impulse was the only metric to show meaningful differences between groups, with the under-18 group performing significantly worse than under-23 and under-16 players. This study highlights that despite the magnitude of asymmetry being similar for each metric between comparable bilateral and unilateral CMJs, consistency in the direction of asymmetry was poor. In essence, if the right limb produced the larger force or impulse during a bilateral CMJ, it was rare for the same limb to perform superior during the unilateral task. Thus, practitioners should be aware that bilateral and unilateral CMJs present different limb dominance characteristics and should not use 1 test to represent the other when measuring between-limb asymmetries.

Publication Type: Articles
Additional Information: Bishop, C, Abbott, W, Brashill, C, Turner, A, Lake, J, and Read, P. Bilateral vs. unilateral countermovement jumps: comparing the magnitude and direction of asymmetry in elite academy soccer players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: June 2022 - Volume 36 - Issue 6 - p 1660-1666 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003679
Uncontrolled Keywords: Humans, Soccer, Academies and Institutes, Leg, Exercise Test, interlimb differences , limb dominance , levels of agreement
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure > GV557 Sports
H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Q Science > Q Science (General)
Divisions: Academic Areas > Institute of Sport > Area > Sport Social Sciences
Related URLs:
SWORD Depositor: Publications Router Jisc
Depositing User: Publications Router Jisc
Date Deposited: 02 Aug 2022 08:54
Last Modified: 02 Jun 2023 01:10
URI: https://eprints.chi.ac.uk/id/eprint/6311

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