title: Bilateral practice improves dominant leg performance in long jump.
abstract: Benefits of bilateral practice both for the non-dominant and for the dominant body side have been shown in several studies. Thereby, most of the studies included movement tasks of the upper extremity or investigated sports games in which the ability of acting bilaterally is an essential basis for success and, thus, a bilateral practice is reasonable anyway. Individual unilaterally performed sports including movement tasks of the lower extremity are rarely investigated. Therefore, the aim of our study was to test if contralateral transfer due to bilateral practice can be found in an unilaterally performed sport including the lower extremity. We trained and tested 61 adolescent athletes in long jump to compare the jumping performance of the dominant leg after a 12-week practice period between two groups: a bilateral practice group that practiced specific long jump exercises with both the dominant and non-dominant leg and an unilateral practice group that practiced specific long jump exercises only with the dominant leg. Results showed a superior effect of bilateral practice compared to unilateral practice regarding the jumping performance of the dominant leg. The performance increase at post-test and retention-test for the dominant limb was significantly higher for the bilateral practice group (pre-to-post: 5.2%, pre-to-retention: 7.4%) compared to the unilateral practice group (pre-to-post: 3.4%, pre-to-retention: 4.5%). Thus, bilateral practice should be established in the early practice programmes of track and field athletes to improve the performance of the dominant take-off leg.
authors: a BioMotion Center, Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology , Karlsruhe , Germany.
authors: Anne
authors: A
authors: Focke
authors: a BioMotion Center, Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology , Karlsruhe , Germany.
authors: Sina
authors: S
authors: Spancken
authors: a BioMotion Center, Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology , Karlsruhe , Germany.
authors: Christian
authors: C
authors: Stockinger
authors: a BioMotion Center, Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology , Karlsruhe , Germany.
authors: Benjamin
authors: B
authors: Thürer
authors: a BioMotion Center, Institute of Sports and Sports Science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology , Karlsruhe , Germany.
authors: Thorsten
authors: T
authors: Stein
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D035002:Lower Extremity / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D014142:Track and Field / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Bilateral transfer; bilateral training; contralateral transfer; crosslimb education; lower extremity