The acute and chronic effects of plyometric jump training on female GAA players

To date the body of literature on plyometric jump training on females is limited (Pardos-Mainer et al., 2021). Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge there is no research that has been conducted on female GAA players at club and inter-county level. This is a major limitation in terms of Sport Science and Strength and Conditioning Practitioners having guidelines available to them to design safe and effective plyometric programmes. This project will provide state of the art programming guidelines to assist in developing efficient, effective, and safe programme guidelines for female GAA players. These guidelines will benefit the Gaelic Athletic Association and potentially be included in their coach development programme. Compared to other training methods, plyometric training offers several advantages, such as the need of minimal equipment to be safely and effectively implemented; a single session can last a brief period of time (e.g., 30-40 mins); and has been shown to improve a variety of physical fitness characteristics (E.g., balance, strength, jumping, change of direction and sprinting). Moreover, the athlete develops an understanding of how to use their body in relation to gravity to maximise training responses and adaptations. The original and innovative aspects of this proposed project include comparing different protocols to measure reactive strength; estimating the reliability of the above-mentioned performance tests; assessing the effect of a single session of plyometric training and responses over several time frames and how these female athletes adapt to this form of training. In addition, the reliability studies shall provide normative data. An innovative approach will be the use of a force plate to gain an understanding of the neuromuscular functioning of these female athletes.

The project has just started so no findings.