The acute effect of whole body vibration (WBV) training on power-related measurements of field hockey players

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of acute whole body vibration (WBV) training on the speed, agility and explosive power performance measurements of university field hockey players. A two-way randomized, crossover experimental research design was used in the study. Seventeen university field hockey players were randomly chosen from the first hockey teams of the North-West University, South-Africa to participate in the study and were divided into two groups. The players underwent two days of testing once as part of a control group and subsequently as part of the experimental group. After the first testing opportunity, a crossover design was implemented by subjecting the control group to the treatment and allowing the initial experimental group to form the control group. The results showed that no statistical significance was obtained in any of the measurements from pre to post-testing. ANOVA analysis of the speed, agility and explosive power measurements revealed that the sequence of treatment had no significant effect on any of the variables. Main effect ANOVA analysis of the same variables revealed that none of the measurements were influenced significantly by the acute application of vibration training. The investigation of individual results from pre-to post-testing did however show tendencies towards improvement in the performances of 5m sprint (65%) and agility t-test (ATT) (53%) times. The acute application of WBV did not lead to any significant changes in the speed, agility and explosive power measurements of university field hockey players.Key words: Whole body vibration training, field hockey, speed, explosive power, agility