CHANGE ON VERTICAL JUMP AFTER COMPETITIVE PERIOD IN PROFESSIONALS SOCCER PLAYERS

COLEDAM, D. H. C.; SANTOS, D.; DOS-SANTOS, J. W. Change on vertical jump after competitive period in professionals soccer players. Brazilian Journal of Biomotricity, v. 4, n. 2, p. 140-147, 2010. Soccer is a sport that demands different intensities of run, with decisive actions of a match being held in maximum intensity. Vertical jump test is widely used in soccer players due to the strong relationship with speed and agility. Futhermore, there are little information about change on vertical jump after the competitive season in soccer players. The aim of this study was to analyze change on vertical jump after the competitive season in professional soccer players. Took part in this study 21 male athletes (20.82 ± 3.16 years, 72.28 ± 8.74 kg and 179.91 ± 6.14 cm) subscribers to the 4th division of the Paulista championship of 2009. The competitive season had a duration of 20 weeks, with a total of 20 official matchs done. The test used was the counter-movement vertical jump (VJ), that was performed in the first (PRE) and last (POS) training session of the competitive period. After confirmation of data normality by Kolmogorov-Smirnov, the inferential analysis of the results of VJ between PRE and POS was performed using the paired t-test, considering the significance level of 5%. There was a significant increase (p<0,05) on VJ after the competitive period (PRE=54,19±4,46 and POS=57,94±5,23). According to the results of this study, it is possible to increase the performance of VJ in professional soccer players after the competitive period of 20 weeks duration.