ABSTRACT
During a soccer game, players perform more than 1,200 acyclic or unpredictable changes of direction (Mohr et al., 2003) at different intensities. The useful and effective physical activities for threatening the opponent’s goal or, on the contrary, for defending one’s own goal include sprints, acceleration, deceleration, turning, jumping, kicking the ball and tackling (Arnason et al., 2004). These physical activities are dependent on and affected by explosive power and muscle strength (Haff et al., 2001; Wisloff et al., 2004). Explosive strength is one of the key performance factors in sports. As such, the vertical jump is one of the essential motor skills that relies on explosive strength of the lower limbs and is a good benchmark for this attribute (Aragon, 2000). Vertical jumps are commonly used to assess motor function and power development.
