title: Influence of a sport-specific training background on vertical jumping and throwing performance in young female basketball and volleyball players.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of 3 years of sport-specific training background (SSTB) on vertical jumping and throwing performance in young female basketball and volleyball players.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-one healthy adolescent girls, of which 11 age-matched control subjects [C], 10 basketballers (BP) and 10 volleyballers (VP) participated to the study. The throwing performance was assessed by seated backward overhead ball throw (SBOMBT) and seated chest pass throw (SCPT) using a 3-kg rubber medicine ball. Instead, the vertical jumping performance was evaluated by squat jump (SJ) and countermovement jump with (CMJ-AS) and without arm swing (CMJ) using Optojump system (Microgate srl, Italy).
  
  
  RESULTS
  During SJ and CMJ with and without arm swing VP group showed a higher vertical jump performance than BP and C ones. In particular we showed that VP exhibited a higher flight time and jump height than C (P<0.05) in SJ, CMJ and CMJ-AS tests. Players showed higher performances than C in SCPT and SBOMBT. However, we found only a significant difference (P<0.05) in the comparison between BP and C during SCPT. Moreover, we found significant correlations between SBOBMT performances and CMJ-AS jump heights in C (r= 0.60; p= 0.02) and VP (r= 0.81; p<0.01) groups compared to BP one (r= -0.47; p= 0.08).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data suggest that 3 years of SSTB might be able to promote significant neuromuscular adaptations in volleyball and basketball athletes' maximal power compared to age-matched control subjects.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Giuridiche della Società e dello Sport Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italia - giuseppe.battaglia@unipa.it.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Battaglia
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paoli
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bellafiore
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bianco
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Palma
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001132:Arm / Q000502:physiology; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D001490:Basketball / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007866:Leg / Q000502:physiology; D053580:Muscle Strength / Q000502:physiology; D010806:Physical Education and Training; D059385:Plyometric Exercise; D055070:Resistance Training; D054798:Volleyball / Q000502:physiology*