Effect of different stretching strategies on the kinetics of vertical jumping in female volleyball athletes

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine the effect of static stretching (SS) and a sport-specific dynamic stretching (DS) session at two specific post-stretch time intervals in highly trained female athletes (age 19.90 ± 1.60 years; height 1.80 ± 0.06 m; mass 76.87 ± 9.95 kg) on kinetic parameters of peak force, time-to-takeoff, and rate of force development. The data were collected over 3 days (randomized within subject design with control session). Following each stretch session (SS vs. DS vs. control) of equal duration (7 min total: 30 s per targeted muscle group) participants performed countermovement jumping on a force platform at 1 and 15 min after stretching. The DS session significantly improved upon kinetic variables of rate of force development, peak force, and time-to-takeoff relative to SS at 1 min after stretching. No significant effect was found at 15 min. Together these findings suggest that when training and competing to jump quickly and maximally the female athlete should incorporate DS instead of SS as part of their pre-competition warm-up, but conduct performance within 15 min of their warm-up to elicit maximal gains.