Jumping and hopping in elite and amateur orienteering athletes and correlations to sprinting and running
2014 (English)In: International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, ISSN 1555-0265, E-ISSN 1555-0273, Vol. 9, no 6, p. 993-999Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
PURPOSE:
Jumping and hopping are used to measure lower-body muscle power, stiffness, and stretch-shortening-cycle utilization in sports, with several studies reporting correlations between such measures and sprinting and/or running abilities in athletes. Neither jumping and hopping nor correlations with sprinting and/or running have been examined in orienteering athletes.
METHODS:
The authors investigated squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), standing long jump (SLJ), and hopping performed by 8 elite and 8 amateur male foot-orienteering athletes (29 ± 7 y, 183 ± 5 cm, 73 ± 7 kg) and possible correlations to road, path, and forest running and sprinting performance, as well as running economy, velocity at anaerobic threshold, and peak oxygen uptake (VO(2peak)) from treadmill assessments.
RESULTS:
During SJs and CMJs, elites demonstrated superior relative peak forces, times to peak force, and prestretch augmentation, albeit lower SJ heights and peak powers. Between-groups differences were unclear for CMJ heights, hopping stiffness, and most SLJ parameters. Large pairwise correlations were observed between relative peak and time to peak forces and sprinting velocities; time to peak forces and running velocities; and prestretch augmentation and forest-running velocities. Prestretch augmentation and time to peak forces were moderately correlated to VO(2peak). Correlations between running economy and jumping or hopping were small or trivial.
CONCLUSIONS:
Overall, the elites exhibited superior stretch-shortening-cycle utilization and rapid generation of high relative maximal forces, especially vertically. These functional measures were more closely related to sprinting and/or running abilities, indicating benefits of lower-body training in orienteering.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2014. Vol. 9, no 6, p. 993-999
Keywords [en]
athletic performance, foot orienteering, jump tests, off-road running, stiffness
National Category
Sport and Fitness Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-23798DOI: 10.1123/ijspp.2013-0486ISI: 000344834500016PubMedID: 24664965Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84911925147OAI: oai:DiVA.org:miun-23798DiVA, id: diva2:772095
2014-12-162014-12-162025-02-11Bibliographically approved