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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COUNTERMOVEMENT JUMPS AND RACE PERFORMANCE IN FEMALE CROSS-COUNTRY ATHLETES: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Competitive running is associated with stress and overuse injuries. The historic monitoring method utilized by competitive runners has been weekly mileage often to quantify workload. However, other aspects play a role in athletes’ workload that weekly mileage fails to account for. Countermovement vertical jumps (CMJ) have previously been used to monitor explosive power in athletes and have been included as one aspect of a weekly monitoring program for elite middle- and long-distance runners. This preliminary study aimed to assess running performance in conjunction with CMJ performance in female collegiate distance runners. METHODS: Division I cross-country (XC) runners (n=12) performed weekly CMJ testing prior to team mandated strength training. In total, 3 CMJs were performed on the VALD ForceDeck each session to examine the following variables: jump height, concentric peak velocity, peak power/bodyweight, reactive strength index modified (RSI-mod), eccentric rate of force development, eccentric rate of force development asymmetry, concentric impulse asymmetry. On two separate days in-season, runners competed in a XC meet on the same course. Spearman's rank order correlations were performed to examine the relationship for race time and CMJ performance, and a net change in performance and CMJ variables. RESULTS: When examining race time and CMJ variables, a moderate correlation with jump height (rho = -0.44; p = 0.04) and concentric peak velocity (rho = -0.44; p 0.04) was observed. For the net change analysis, there was a moderate non-significant relationship between change in race time and change in eccentric rate of force development asymmetry (rho = 0.62, p = 0.08). All other variables for both overall and net change Spearman rank correlation analysis were weak (<0.39) and non-significant (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence to suggest CMJ performance moderately correlates with race time. Future research is needed to examine this relationship to performance further with an increased sample size.

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