Nordic Hamstring Strength of Highly Trained Youth Football Players and Its Relation to Sprint Performance

Markovic, G, Sarabon, N, Boban, F, Zoric, I, Jelcic, M, Sos, K, and Scappaticci, M. Nordic hamstring strength of highly trained youth football players and its relation to sprint performance. J Strength Cond Res 34(3): 800–807, 2020—We aimed to characterize Nordic hamstring (NH) strength and bilateral NH strength asymmetry in highly trained youth footballers and to investigate the relationship between NH strength and sprint performance. Twenty-two adult and 133 highly trained youth footballers in the age groups U12–U18 participated in this study. Eccentric hamstring strength was assessed using the NH device. Youth footballers (n = 119) also performed 20-m sprint test. Age-related changes in absolute and relative NH strength, and bilateral NH strength asymmetry were analyzed using 1-way analysis of variance. The linear relationship between relative NH strength and sprint performance was established using a Pearson correlation analysis. Significant age-related increases (F = 3.6–18.9; all p

Source: Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research - February 20, 2020 Category: Sports Medicine Tags: Original Research Source Type: research