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Plyometric Training Assignment
Being a soccer player requires strength, endurance, agility, and speed. With this in mind,
a soccer player needs to engage in a variety of training styles in addition to his or her sport-
specific training. One of the best training types to incorporate within a soccer athlete’s program
is plyometric training. The journal article titled, Short-Term High Intensity Plyometric Training
Program Improves Strength, Power, and Agility in Male Soccer Players, examines the
effectiveness of plyometric training in the realm of increasing overall strength, power, and agility
(Vaczi et al., 2013). This discourse will evaluate the article based on the strengths and
weaknesses of the study as well as provide additional support for the article’s conclusion.
Background
This course studies speed and agility and promotes a better understanding of effective
training to produce an improvement in both. The selected article utilizes a sample of male soccer
players, who require speed, agility, strength, and power to perform their sport successfully (Vaczi
et al., 2013). Since soccer players require these abilities, this study was able to determine if its
methods actually improved their abilities (Vaczi et al., 2013). An examination of this specific
article will promote a knowledge of proper methods for increasing agility and speed, which
aligns with the goals of this course.
Introduction Review
This study recognized the popularity of plyometric training as a training style of choice
and sought to discover how effective this type of training style is on the strength, power, and
agility of male soccer players (Vaczi et al., 2013). The study began by describing the role of
plyometric training, which is to ultimately increase dynamic muscle performance through a
quick elongation of the muscle immediately followed up by a shortening (Vaczi et al., 2013). The
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introduction continued to recognize issue with current studies on plyometric training, as there are
many studies of the topic, and these problems included the following: sample types, time,
gender, methods, types of apparatuses, utilizing short-term and low intensity programs, and
exercise types (Vaczi et al., 2013). This study desire to utilized short-term, high intensity
plyometric training in hopes of producing more consistent, effective results (Vaczi et al., 2013).
The study’s hypothesis was “the six-week long PT program improves agility depth vertical jump
height and knee extensor strength” (Vaczi et al., 2013).
Strengths and Weaknesses
This test seemed to pick a strong sample with the participants not being at the elite level.
Furthermore, the players fell in a similar age group as well as body mass size, which limits the
results to this one target sample. The study’s goal was to see the effects of short-term in-season
plyometric training on power, agility, and knee extensor strength for this specific group of male
soccer players. In addition, the study utilized pre and post assessments that seemed reliable, one
of which was a knee extensor strength assessment using a dynameter (Vaczi et al., 2013).
Another study examined the reliability and validity of the portable dynameter in measuring knee
extensor strength and concluded that this system is in fact reliable and valid (Sung et al., 2019).
Based on the research, this seems to be a beneficial tool to utilize for the selected study.
Furthermore, the study used a control group that did not participate in plyometric training and
only engaged in sport specific training, and the results showed that the control group did not
improve in any of the measures (Sung et al., 2013). This made the study overall more effective as
there was a group to compare the experimental group to.
As for the weaknesses, there were a few improvements the study could have made to
make the study more effective. One weakness was that the study was short and only included
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two additional training days a week. The study was supposed to be short-term; however, it would
have been interesting to see more long-term effects. The study could have added more
plyometric training days to see if that really is what made the improvements more significant in
the experimental group. In addition, it was not noted what positions the athletes were. This could
have made a huge difference in the results. If the controls were mainly goalkeepers and
defenders and the experimental group was mainly midfielders and strikers or vice versa, this
would greatly impact results. The position on the field requires differing abilities, so this would
be important to consider when performing the study.
Summary
The study hypothesized that the athletes would improve their power, strength, and agility
during the six weeks of plyometric training containing both unilateral and bilateral maximal
intensity exercises (Vaczi et al., 2013). The study summarized the results and concluded that the
assessments demonstrated that the athletes did see improvements in the hypothesized areas, and
the controlled group did not see improvements and just stayed the same (Vaczi et al., 2013).
Another study that utilized a sample of elite players shared similar results and concluded that the
athletes noticed an improvement in overall power; however, this study suggested a duration of at
least eight weeks instead of six (Slimani et al., 2016). Overall, this study also recognized the
effectiveness of plyometric training for overall physical fitness of athletes (Slimani et al., 2016).
Another article titled Effects of Plyometric Training on Soccer Players concluded that plyometric
training should be incorporated in a soccer training program but also in a variety of sports, as this
type of training proved to increase strength, endurance, power, and agility (Wang & Zhang,
2016).
Conclusion
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In conclusion, this article concluded that its hypothesis was correct. The three selected
support research studies came to the same conclusions utilizing varying sports and samples. The
article demonstrated that athletes can improve their power, strength, and agility through high-
intensity plyometric training (Vaczi et al., 2013). There still seems to be inconsistencies when it
comes to program duration, as this study was six weeks long whereas other study stated that
duration of time was too short. More studies should be completed to research this question of
program duration. Overall, these studies encouraged a discovery of how to increase agility,
strength, and power in specifically athletes, which achieves aligns with the goal of this course.
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References
Slimani, M., Chamari, K., Miarka, B., Del Vecchio, F. B., & Chéour, F. (2016). Effects of
Plyometric Training on Physical Fitness in Team Sport Athletes: A Systematic Review.
Journal of human kinetics, 53, 231–247. https://doi.org/10.1515/hukin-2016-0026
Sung, K. S., Yi, Y. G., & Shin, H. I. (2019). Reliability and validity of knee extensor strength
measurements using a portable dynamometer anchoring system in a supine position.
BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 20(1), 320. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-019-2703-0
Váczi, M., Tollár, J., Meszler, B., Juhász, I., & Karsai, I. (2013). Short-term high intensity
plyometric training program improves strength, power and agility in male soccer
players. Journal of human kinetics, 36, 17–26. https://doi.org/10.2478/hukin-2013-0002
Wang, Y. C., & Zhang, N. (2016). Effects of plyometric training on soccer players. Experimental
and therapeutic medicine, 12(2), 550–554. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2016.3419
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