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Postactivation potentiation and change of direction speed in elite academy rugby players

  • James Marshall
    ,
  • Anthony Turner
    ,
  • Paul Jarvis
    ,
  • Sean Maloney
    ,
  • Jon Cree
    ,
  • Chris Bishop
  • Middlesex University
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of preceding proagility sprints with maximal isometric squats to determine if postactivation potentiation (PAP) could be harnessed in change of direction speed. Sixteen elite under-17 rugby union players (age: 16 6 0.41 years; body mass: 88.7 6 12.1 kg; height: 1.83 6 0.07 m) from an Aviva Premiership rugby club were tested. Subjects performed a change of direction specific warm-up, followed by 2 baseline proagility tests. After 10-minute recovery, 3 3 3-second maximal isometric squats with a 2-minute recovery between sets were completed as a conditioning activity (CA) on a force plate where peak force and mean rate of force development over 300 milliseconds were measured. The proagility test was repeated at set time intervals of 1, 3, 5, and 7 minutes after the CA. Overall proagility times were significantly slower (p, 0.05) at 1 minute post-CA compared with the baseline (3.3%), with no significant differences occurring at 3, 5, or 7 minutes post-CA. Therefore, it appears that performing multiple sets of maximal isometric squats do not enhance proagility performance.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 1551-1556

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (Volume 33, Issue 6)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 01/06/2019

Publication status

Published - 01/06/2019

ISSN

1064-8011

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/623762
  • Scopus: 85052526560

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