ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to compare and evaluate vertical jump and explosive strength of lower limbs in different young elite soccer categories and to assess bilateral differences between groups and across the age categories. Elite players of four age categories of the highest national Czech league participated in the study at the beginning of the preparatory period. Performance differences regarding age and the type of jump were examined using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Bonferonni's post-hoc tests. This result is interesting because across the age groups we observe significantly different jump heights. The isolated explosive power of lower limbs is already developed in Under-16 category but, in older players, the final jump height is the sum of core system work, as well as more effective use of trunk and arms to generate explosive power. Perhaps the biggest concern from our study was the differences that we observed across all jumps in bilateral power differences.
