Early-season changes in concentric-only, long and short stretch-shortening cycle jump performance in highly trained youth basketball players.
In youth basketball players, squat jump and countermovement jump performance improved only during the pre-season, while reactive strength qualities peaked early in the in-season.
Where it sits
this study against the rest of the slu-pp-332 (exercise mimetic) corpusSummary and findings
This study measured early-season changes in jumping performance among highly-trained youth basketball players using various vertical jump tests. A total of 26 players participated, with significant improvements in squat jump (SJ) and countermovement jump (CMJ) height observed from T1 to T2. Changes in reactive strength index (RSI) were noted in drop jump (DJ) and repeated jump (RJ) tests during the early in-season period.
Abstract
<h4>Background</h4>In basketball, most studies analysing seasonal variations in neuromuscular performance through vertical jump testing rely solely on the countermovement jump (CMJ), a slow stretch-shortening cycle (SSC) test. This study aimed to analyse early-season changes in jumping performance in highly-trained youth basketball athletes, utilizing a comprehensive jump test battery to determine the time-course of adaptations in concentric-only qualities (using the squat jump, SJ), and slow (through the CMJ) and fast SCC function (<i>via</i> the drop jump and repeated jump tests, DJ and RJ).<h4>Materials and methods</h4>Twenty-six players (under-16: <i>n</i> = 14; age:14.9 ± 0.3 years; under-18: <i>n</i> = 12; age: 16.7 ± 0.4 years) from a high-level basketball academy volunteered to participate. In the first (T1) and final week (T2) of the pre-season, and four weeks into the in-season (i.e. week nine of the training period, T3), players completed the following tests on a contact mat on the same day: SJ, CMJ, DJ and RJ. To examine the progression of each vertical jump test across the selected different phases of the season, a repeated measures ANOVA with time (T1, T2 and T3) as factor was conducted.<h4>Results</h4>SJ and CMJ height improved only from T1 to T2 (both <i>p</i> < 0.001). DJ height remained constant, but shorter ground contact times (GCT) were observed in T2 and T3 when compared to T1 (<i>p</i> = 0.018 and <i>p</i> < 0.001, respectively). Moreover, significant and gradual increases were found in DJ reactive strength index (RSI) (T1 to T2: <i>p</i> = 0.039; T2 to T3: <i>p</i> < 0.030). In the RJ, significant improvements were found only for RSI between T2 and T3 (<i>p</i> = 0.005).<h4>Conclusions</h4>Reactive strength qualities and fast SSC performance peaked during the early in-season, while changes in concentric-only and slow SSC function (assessed with SJ and CMJ, respectively) occurred exclusively during the pre-season.KEY MESSAGESDifferent vertical jump tests showed distinct early-season changes in youth basketball.Squat (SJ) and Countermovement Jump (CMJ) performance improved only during the pre-season, while reactive strength qualities assessed via the Drop Jump (DJ) and Repeated Jumps peaked during the early in-season.DJ reactive strength index and ground contact times might be more sensitive than CMJ or SJ height to detect changes in neuromuscular capabilities in-season.