Speed/Power Development
.jpg "Aleida Sanchez (she/her/hers) photo")
Aleida Sanchez (she/her/hers)
Undergraduate Student
University of Texas at San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas, United States
Matthew P. Gonzalez, MS, CSCS,*D
Doctoral Candidate
University of Texas at San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas, United States
Israa Ajroudi
Undergraduate Student
University of Texas at San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas, United States
Samuel Montalvo, PhD, CPSS., CSCS, *D
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
Stanford University
Stanford, California, United States
Martin S. Dietze-Hermosa, CSCS,*D,
Professor
BYUI
Rexburg, Idaho, United States
Sandor Dorgo
Professor
University of Texas at San Antonio
san antonio, Texas, United States
Contact time, the duration an athlete’s foot is in contact with the ground, is a key athletic parameter for both sprinting and jumping. A strong correlation between drop jump performance and sprint completion times has been shown previously. However, there has been minimal investigation into the relationship between contact time of drop jumps with contact times of sprint steps.
Purpose: To investigate the relationship between drop jump contact time and contact time during sprinting.
Methods: A total of 63 collegiate athletes participated in this study (n = 10 basketball, n = 31 football, and n = 22 track). Each participant completed three trials of a drop jump from a height of 45.72cm onto two force platforms, sampling at 1000 Hz. Athletes also performed a 30-meter sprint, during which step kinematics were measured using the Optojump Next system. One to two full sprint strides were used for the analysis, calculating the average contact time of left and right steps. To explore the relationship between sprint step contact time and contact time of the drop jump, Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficients were determined. Significance was set at an alpha level of p < 0.05.
Results: Study participants demonstrated a mean ± SD drop jump contact time of 0.325±0.114s and a sprint contact time of 0.138±0.041. A significant positive correlation was found between sprint step contact time and drop jump contact time (r = 0.612, 95% CI = 0.410-0.747, p < 0.001) (See Figure 1).
Conclusions: These findings indicate a significant correlation between sprint step contact time and drop jump contact time across football, basketball, and track. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: This study highlights the importance of considering these factors in the context of athletic performance. Prolonged contact durations in both activities may suggest lower performance levels. Therefore, prioritizing shorter contact time durations becomes critical in enhancing performance in both sprints and drop jumps as integral components of an athlete’s training regimen.
Acknowledgements: None