Change of direction deficit in national team rugby union players: is there an Influence of playing position?
Freitas, Tomás T., Alcaraz, Pedro E., Bishop, Chris 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1505-1287, Calleja-González, Julio, Arruda, Ademir F. S., Guerriero, Aristide, Reis, Valter P., Pereira, Lucas A. and Loturco, Irineu
(2018)
Change of direction deficit in national team rugby union players: is there an Influence of playing position?
Sports, 7
(1)
, 2.
ISSN 2075-4663
[Article]
(doi:10.3390/sports7010002)
|
PDF
- Published version (with publisher's formatting)
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the change of direction (COD) ability and deficits of elite rugby union players, discriminating between position (backs and forwards), and between "faster and slower players", in multiple COD tasks. Twenty-four male rugby union players from the Brazilian senior National team completed the following assessments: Squat and countermovement jumps; drop jump; standing long jump, horizontal triple jumps; 40-m linear sprint; Pro-agility, L-Drill, and Zig-zag COD tests; and squat 1-repetition maximum. The differences between backs and forwards and between faster and slower performers were examined using magnitude-based inferences. Backs were faster (in both linear and COD speed tests) and jumped higher than forwards. Moreover, they generated an inferior sprint momentum. No differences were found in COD deficit between playing positions. However, when dividing the sample by median split, faster players outperformed their slower counterparts in all power⁻speed variables and presented higher COD deficits. These results suggest that separating rugby players by playing position might not discriminate players with different COD skills and that the median split analysis is more sensitive to identifying these differences. Furthermore, the present data indicate that faster rugby players are less efficient at changing direction and tolerating higher approach velocities in COD maneuvers.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords (uncontrolled): | agility, athletes, muscle power, sprint velocity, team sports |
| Research Areas: | A. > School of Science and Technology > London Sport Institute > Strength and Conditioning at the London Sport Institute |
| Item ID: | 25923 |
| Notes on copyright: | © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
| Useful Links: | |
| Depositing User: | Jisc Publications Router |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Jan 2019 13:10 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Nov 2022 19:24 |
| URI: | https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/id/eprint/25923 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
Statistics
Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)