The Relationship Between Muscle Strength, Anaerobic Performance, Agility, Sprint Ability and Vertical Jump Performance in Professional Basketball Players: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between isokinetic knee strength, anaerobic performance, sprinting ability, agility and vertical jump performance in first division basketball players. Twelve male first division basketball players participated in this study. The mean age was 25.1 ± 1.7 yrs; mean body height 194.8 ± 5.7 cm; mean body mass 92.3± 9.8 kg; mean PBF 10.1± 5.1; and mean VO_2max 50.55 ± 6.7 ml/kg/min. Quadriceps and hamstrings were measured at 60° and 180°/s, anaerobic performance was evaluated using the Wingate anaerobic power test, sprint ability was determined by single sprint performance (10-30 m), jump performance was evaluated by countermovement (CMJ) and squat jump (SJ) tests and agility performance was measured using the T drill agility test. Quadriceps strength was significantly correlated with peak power at all contraction velocities. However, for mean power, significant correlation was only found between the 60° left and 180° right knee quadriceps measurements. No measure of strength was significantly related to the measurements from/results of field tests. Moreover, strong relations were found between the performance of athletes in different field tests (p< 0.05). The use of correlation analysis is the limitation of the this study.

The purpose of this study was to compare the percentage of maximum heart rate (%HRmax), blood lactate (La⁻), and rating of perceived exertion (RPE, CR-10) responses across different formats of small-sided games (SSG) in elite young soccer players. Fourteen players (average age 16.7 ± 0.6 years; height 177.6 ± 4.1 cm; body mass 66.3 ± 4.7 kg; average training age 6.7 ± 1.6 years; percentage of body fat 8.4 ± 2.6%) volunteered to perform the YoYo intermittent recovery test (level 1) and eight bouts of soccer drills including 2-a-side, 3-a-side, and 4-a-side games without goalkeepers in random order at two-day intervals. Heart rates were monitored throughout the SSGs, whereas the RPE and venous blood lactate were determined at the end of the last bout of each SSG. The differences in La⁻, %HRmax, and RPE either across the different SSGs or between the bouts were identified using 3 × 8 (games × exercise bouts) two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures. Significant differences were found in terms of La⁻, RPE, and %HRmax among the different types of SSG (p ≤ 0.05). 3-a-side and 4-a-side games elicited significantly higher responses than 2-a-side games in terms of %HRmax (p ≤ 0.05), whereas 4-a-side games resulted in significantly lower La⁻ and RPE responses compared to 2-a-side and 3-a-side games. The results of this study show that physiological responses differ according to the numbers of players involved in small-sided games. Therefore, it can be concluded that 3-a-side and 4-a-side games could be more effective in improving high intensity aerobic performance than 2-a-side games, which in turn are more appropriate for developing anaerobic performance.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the order effect of a combination of plyometric and resistance training sessions on isokinetic leg strength and vertical jump performance in undergraduate students over the course of a 6-week training program. METHODS: Twenty-four undergraduate volunteers were randomly divided into 3 groups, each group consisting of 3 female and 5 male students. The first group performed traditional combination training (TC; n=8) involving plyometric training exercises at the beginning of a workout session before resistance exercises; the second group performed contrast training (CT; n=8) involving alternating resistance exercises with plyometric training from set to set; the third group performed complex training (CP; n=8), another form of combination training that involves the planning of several sets of resistance training repetitions, followed by plyometric exercises [16]. All groups completed a similar volume and intensity of training. RESULTS: While all programs produced gains in vertical jump performance (p < 0.01) and isokinetic leg strength (p < 0.01, p < 0.05) except for quadriceps 60°/s for both legs in both genders, no between group differences were observed for any performance value. CONCLUSIONS: The use of plyometric and resistance training within the same training session can be used interchangeably, irrespective of exercise order and gender.

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