Explosive power of lower limbs in rhythmic gymnastics athletes in different competitive levels

Abstract The explosive power in Rhythmic Gymnastics shows itself in the great majority of movements and elements performed by the gymnasts, particularly in the jumps, which are essential corporal movements in this sport. The training directed to the development of jumping capacity presents a large quantity of exercises which aim to improve muscular power in the lower limbs and therefore the impulsion capacity. The vertical impulsion is an important measure used to calculate the explosive power of the lower limbs and is directly connected to the success that the gymnast will be able to achieve. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the height of two jumps in the RG (stag jump and Cossack jump) in contact mat Ergojump, which calculates the jump height in connection with the flight timing, executed by national level junior gymnasts and to compare them to the results of the Junior National Team - in total 30 junior gymnasts with 13.73 ± 0.17 years old. Furthermore, to compare the levels of explosive power of preferred lower limb (PLL) and non-preferred lower limb (NPLL) of all gymnasts in the study, in order to verify eventual functional asymmetries. For the statistical analysis we used Parametric Tests (t Test) and Nonparametric (Mann-Whitney Test and Wilcoxon Test). The gymnasts of the National Team achieved superior marks in 33.3% of the tests and 83.3% of the gymnasts of our sample did not present explosive power asymmetries. We conclude that the gymnasts of the National Team did not show the expected superiority in the tests, and the most of gymnasts presented a harmonious development of explosive power for both lower limbs, since they did not show functional asymmetries