Influence of the Use of Upper Limbs in the Vertical Jump on the Ground Reaction Force of Female Athletes from the Development Basketball Categories

The vertical jump is an important part of some specific skills of different sports and, therefore, numerous studies have been carried out in order to explain and assist the movement performance. The present study aims to verify the influence of the use of the upper limbs during the vertical jump movement in the variables of the Ground Reaction Force (GRF). For this, 18 female athletes from the development basketball categories performed vertical jumps with and without the use of upper limbs on a Force Platform (AMTI). The average of 3 valid jumps from each athlete was used for statistical analysis using the paired t test. The tests were performed using the SPSS v.20 software and the significance level adopted was 0.05. Significant differences were found for GRF in the eccentric phase, in the duration of the aerial phase and in the maximum height reached during the jump. The % of GRF in the eccentric phase in the jump without using the upper limbs (0.58 ± 0.21% Body Weight) was significantly higher than in the jump with the use of upper limbs (0.48 ± 0.22% Body Weight), however in the duration of the aerial phase the jump performed with the aid of the upper limbs (0.48 ± 0.04 s) was greater than in the jump performed without the aid of upper limbs (0.43 ± 0.05 s), in accordance with the maximum height which was also greater in the jump performed with the use of upper limbs (0.28 ± 0.05 m) than in the performed jump without the use of upper limbs (0.23 ± 0.05 m). As the conclusions of this study, the practical suggestion is to help them jumping with greater speed avoiding dissipation of the energy accumulated in the eccentric phase.