Acute effects of plyometric warm-up with different box heights on sprint and agility performance in national-level field hockey athletes

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Postactivation potentiation (PAP) is an acute and temporary enhancement of muscular performance resulting from previous muscular contraction. Extensive research exists examining the PAP effect after a heavy resistance exercise but there is limited research examining the PAP effect after a plyometric stimulus to the pre-competition practices (e.g., warm-up) of well-trained athletes. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effects of plyometric warm-up with different box heights on sprint and agility performance in national-level field hockey athletes at recovery time of immediately, 5 minutes and 10 minutes. METHODS: In a randomized crossover design, ten male national-level field hockey athletes performed 30-m sprint (with 10-m split) and agility test at baseline, immediately (∼ 15 sec), 5 minutes and 10 minutes after a high-intensity plyometric warm-up (HIPW), a low-intensity plyometric warm-up (LIPW) and a control trial (CT). RESULTS: Mean 10-m sprint times, 30-m sprint times and agility times were similar between trials at baseline (p> 0.05). Significant trial x time interactions (p⩽ 0.05) were observed for 10-m sprint time, 30-m sprint time and agility time. 10-m sprint times were significantly decreased after HIPW at all time-points and LIPW at immediately time-point, relative to baseline (p⩽ 0.05). HIPW 10-m sprint times were faster at all time-points and LIPW sprint time was faster at 10 minutes when compared with CT (p⩽ 0.05). Thirty-meter sprint times were significantly decreased after HIPW and LIPW at all time-points, relative to baseline (p⩽ 0.05). HIPW 30-m sprint times at all time-points and LIPW at both the 5 and 10 minute time-points were faster than CT (p⩽ 0.05). Agility times were significantly decreased after HIPW at all time-points and LIPW at both the immediately and 5 minutes time-points, relative to baseline (p⩽ 0.05). HIPW and LIPW agility times were faster than CT, at all time-points (p⩽ 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Both HIPW and LIPW may be effective in enhancing the pre-training or pre-competition practices in off-season for national-level field hockey athletes. However, the individualization of HIPW is highly recommended in order to maintain PAP effects for 10-m sprint times, 30-m sprint times and agility times throughout the 10 minutes when compared to LIPW.

Effects of conditioning activities and time of day on male elite football players

“…After applying a 4-minute and 8-minute recovery period in both PAPE regimens, a significant increase in speed was observed across the board [86]. Our results are consistent with previous studies that dynamic stretching alone is sufficient to provide the potentiation of sprint performance compared to the control protocol without additional activity [81,82,87]. The results of this study were similar to our study likely because of the increased muscle-tendon stiffness and the changes in muscle morphology [88].…”

Acute Effects of Different Activity Types and Work-To-Rest Ratio on Post-Activation Performance Enhancement in Young Male and Female Taekwondo Athletes

“…To improve agility, PAP has been proposed as a relevant strategy in current scientific research [20]. Due to the lack of similar protocols in combat sports that investigated the effect of such conditioning activity on athletes' agility, it was difficult to compare our results with others.…”

“…Due to the beneficial effects of the specific technical work on the technical performance of taekwondo athletes [16], it was hypothesized that RHIT with a specific ratio (1:6 or 1:7) would potentiate performance in 10 s frequency of kicks test (FSKT-10s) and in its multiple version (5 × 10 s with 10 s intervals, FSKT-mult). However, as plyometric exercise was shown to be more appropriate to improve jump ability [10] and agility performance [20], it was hypothesized that plyometric-based conditioning activity would result in better jump height and agility performances with all ratios used.…”

Effects of Consecutive Matches on Isometric Hamstring Strength, Flexibility Values and Neuromuscular Performance in Female Field Hockey Players. A Prospective, Observational Study

“…Not only in the case of CMJ values, but looking at all data, it appears that the 48 h of recovery permitted a complete recovery following participation in consecutive matches. Moreover, in other studies featuring field hockey [57] or ice hockey players [58], PAPE has had minimal or no effect on performance.…”