Diagnóstico de assimetrias laterais em jogadores de futebol das categorias de base por meio do salto horizontal monopodal

Abstract

Strength asymmetry may be related to an increased risk of injury and to a reduction in performance of soccer players. The purposes of this study were to verify if there is a difference in asymmetry prevalence and to determine the profile of strength asymmetry in four different youth soccer categories diagnosed by the single leg hop test. A total of 111 male soccer players from four different youth categories: pre-infantile (n = 34), infantile (n = 20), juvenile (n = 31) and junior (n = 26) of a national soccer team engaged in the study.Each soccer player made three valid attempts with each lower limb and the attempt with the best performance, i.e. greater horizontal distance, was used to calculate the symmetry index. To compare the symmetry index between the categories, the one-way ANOVA test with a Bonferroni post hoc was used, and the χ 2 test was used to verify the prevalence of symmetric or asymmetric soccer players among the categories (p < .05). There were no differences in the symmetry index (F (3.107) = 1.229; p > .05), nor were differences in the prevalence asymmetric players (χ 2 (111) = 1.574; p > .05) between the categories. It was concluded that the older soccer players of the different youth categories did not present a higher prevalence of asymmetry than the younger soccer players when evaluated at the beginning of the season.