LATERAL DIFFERENCES OF SPRINT AND COUNTERMOVEMENT JUMP PERFORMANCE OF SOCCER PLAYERS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Lateral differences concerning the magnitude of strength are often found in the lower limbs (LL) and a symmetry index lower than 85% indicates increasing injury risk. Furthermore, lateral differences may also affect the performance of sprints in soccer which are characterized by short distances and alterations of running direction (Young, James & Montgomery, 2002). Since Countermovement Jumps (CMJ) are an adequate method for the identification of lateral asymmetries (Menzel et al., 2006) and usually correlate significantly with sprinting time, the objective was to verify if lateral asymmetries of sprint performance also correlate significantly with lateral asymmetry of CMJ.