LATERALITY IN VERTICAL JUMPS

Abstract

Laterality is a widely investigated phenomenon in motor activities. Various studies deal with the functional dominance of one limb or one side of the body in sports (e.g. Fischer, 1988, Oberbeck, 1989). One common method for the identification of lateral differences in the lower limbs is the single-leg vertical jump (e.g. Stephens, 2005). In order to reduce the risk of injury and the coordinative demand Impellizzeri et al. (2007) and Newton et al. (2006) proposed a double-leg vertical jump force test for the assessment of bilateral strength asymmetry. The focus of these studies was set on the strength imbalance between the right and left leg using the maximum force as the relevant factor. Further parameters to describe lateral differences were neglected and still little is known about the coherence between laterality and jumping performance. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate laterality in established double-leg vertical jumps in performance diagnostics, such as the counter movement jump (CMJ), squat jump (SJ) and drop jump (DJ).