Role of Vertical Jumps and Anthropometric Variables in Maximal Kicking Ball Velocities in Elite Soccer Players

Abstract

Kicking is one of the most important skills in soccer and the ability to achieve ma ximal kicking velocity with both legs leads to an advantage for the soccer player. This study examined the relationship be tween kicking ball velocity with both legs using anthropometric measurements and vertical jumps (a squat jump (SJ); a countermovement jump without (CMJ) and with the arm swing (CMJA) and a reactive jump (RJ)). Anthropome tric measurements did not correlate with kicking ball velocity. Vertical jumps correlated significantly with kicking ball velocity using the dominant leg only (r = .47, r = .58, r = .44, r = .51, for SJ, CMJ, CMJA and RJ, respectively) . Maximal kicking velocity with the dominant leg was significantly higher than with the non-dominant leg (t = 18.0 4, p < 0.001). Our results suggest that vertical jumps may be an optimal test to assess neuromuscular skills involved in kicking at maximal speed. Lack of the relationship between vertical jumps and kicking velocity with the non-dominant leg may reflect a difficulty to exhibit the neuromuscular skills during dominant leg kicking.

Kicking ability and kicking deficit in young elite soccer players

“…In contrast to the preferred leg, the relationship between kicking velocity with the non-preferred leg and the vertical jump performance has received minimal research attention in the literature. To the best of our knowledge, only one study, conducted by our group, in elite adult players attempted to examine this relationship (Rodríguez-Lorenzo, et al, 2016), and found that this correlation was absent using exactly the same methodology as the present study. Nunome et al (2006) attributed the differences in kick biomechanics between the two limbs to the skill level of the players (Nunome et al 2006), i.e.…”

“…The present findings seem to be consistent with another research conducted in young soccer players, which found that maximal kicking velocity was significantly correlated with body mass, height and body mass index (Bekris, et al, 2015;Brahim, Bougatfa, & Mohamed, 2013;Wong, et al, 2009). However, adult soccer players did not show any correlation between those parameters (Rodríguez-Lorenzo, et al, 2016). One possible explanation is that during the prepubertal and pubertal periods, transitory anthropometrical features associated with physical and maturity process, such as weight, height and strength (Figueiredo, Gonçalves, Coelho, Silva, & Malina, 2009;Malina, et al, 2000Malina, et al, , 2005Ré, Cattuzzo, Santos, & Monteiro, 2014) may have a high influence on the kicking performance.…”

“…The coefficient of variation (CV) from the three trials was calculated. In addition, the KD variable was calculated according to the following formula (Rodríguez-Lorenzo, et al, 2016): where KVdomMax and KVnodommax are the maximal velocities achieved using the preferred and non-preferred leg, respectively.…”

“…The KD was calculated as the average velocity values of the total sample rather than as individual values (Rodríguez-Lorenzo, et al, 2015). Nonetheless, one recent study reported the individual values of the KD (12.49 ± 3.24%) and defined it as the percentage of the difference between the maximal ball velocity each player achieved by the non-preferred leg kick in relation to the preferred leg kick (Rodríguez-Lorenzo, Fernandez-del-Olmo, Sánchez-Molina, & Martín-Acero, 2016). Interestingly, in this study it was found that KD results were independent of the absolute maximal kicking ball velocity achieved by the preferred leg.…”

“…Although there are several factors that may affect maximal kicking ball velocity, such as technical (Juárez, López, & Navarro, 2010;Nunome, Lake, Georgakis, & Stergioulas, 2006), biomechanical (Young & Rath, 2011), physiological (Ferraz, Van Den Tillaar, & Marques, 2012) and muscle strength factors (Masuda, Kikuhara, Demura, Katsuta, & Yamanaka, 2005), Rodríguez-Lorenzo, et al (2016) suggested that KD could result from the difficulty of exhibiting the same neuromuscular skills that occur during kicks with the non-preferred and preferred leg. This supports the significant relationship found between the height achieved in the vertical jump tests (SJ, CMJ, CMJA, 1RJA) and the maximum kicking velocity with the preferred leg, but not with the non-preferred one.…”