Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of an overhead target on the jump height and lower limb biomechanics in all three planes of motion in a vertical drop jump (VDJ ) task among elite female handball and football (soccer) players. The hypothesis was that adding an overhead target to the VDJ task improves jump height, increases joint loading, and decreases frontal plane knee control. Five hundred and twenty‐three female handball and football players (mean ± SD : 21 ± 4 years, 168 ± 6 cm, 65 ± 8 kg) completed the test. The overhead target increased jumping height by 5.8%. Furthermore, the overhead target led to statistically significant changes in many of the lower limb biomechanical variables examined. However, all the changes in kinematics and kinetics were clinically insignificant, as indicated by the small effect sizes. Strong to moderate positive Spearman's rank correlations were found between the two conditions. Therefore, an overhead target is unlikely to increase the range of responses in biomechanical variables in elite female handball and football athletes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 161-166 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 21 Dec 2015 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 2017 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
The authors acknowledge Mr Oliver Faul for his assistance in data collection and artwork production.Funding
The Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center has been established at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences through generous grants from the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Culture, the South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, the International Olympic Committee, the Norwegian Olympic Committee, and Confederation of Sport and Norsk Tipping AS.