Jump performance, lower limb function and inter-limb asymmetry: seasonal variation in university team-sport athletes

Parkinson, AO ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8682-3814, Morris, JG ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6508-7897, Apps, CL ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7354-0003 and Felton, PJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9211-0319, 2025. Jump performance, lower limb function and inter-limb asymmetry: seasonal variation in university team-sport athletes. International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching. ISSN 1747-9541

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Abstract

Thirty-eight university basketball, hockey and netball athletes (age: 20.1 ± 1.4 yrs; height 1.8 ± 0.1 cm; body mass: 77.6 ± 12.7 m) completed bilateral and unilateral countermovement (CMJ) and horizontal jumps (HJ) across four seasonal time-points. Mixed-design ANOVAs assessed longitudinal sex-and sport-based differences in jump performance (normalised height/ distance), lower limb function (normalised CMJ power and impulse) and inter-limb asymmetry. Kappa coefficients (κ) assessed directional consistency in asymmetry scores. Males consistently outperformed females across all measures (all p < 0.05) and basketballers exhibited larger HJ distances and improved lower limb function than hockey and netball players (all p < 0.05). HJ performance and unilateral CMJ power improved significantly across the sample from preseason to competition (all p < 0.05), but improvements in CMJ performance and impulse were only observed in females and netballers. HJ derived inter-limb asymmetry decreased from preseason to competition (all p < 0.05), while CMJ derived asymmetries remained unchanged. Directional consistency in asymmetry was poor to substantial (κ = −0.20-0.80), with over 60% of athletes switching limb preferences across timepoints and up to 42% between tasks. These findings support the use of multidirectional jump testing for seasonal monitoring, although practitioners should consider both sport-specific and sex-specific factors when interpreting jump performance, function and asymmetry across a season.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching
Creators:	Parkinson, A.O., Morris, J.G., Apps, C.L. and Felton, P.J.
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Date:	18 December 2025
ISSN:	1747-9541
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1177/17479541251401813 DOI 2562595 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	23 Jan 2026 17:14
Last Modified:	23 Jan 2026 17:14
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/55119

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