10 of Physical Culture and Sports PEDAGOGY The relationship between sprint performance and both lower and upper extremity explosive strength in young soccer players Gürkan Diker 1ABCDE , Sürhat Müniroğlu 2ABCDE , Sadi Ön 3 ABCDE , Hüseyin Özkamçı 4 ABCDE , Abdulkerim Darendeli 1,5 ABCDE 1 Sivas Cumhuriyet University, Turkey 2 Ankara University, Turkey 3 Ahi Evran University, Turkey 4 Dokuz Eylül University,Turkey 5 Anadolu University, Turkey Authors’ Contribution: A – Study design; B – Data collection; C – Statistical analysis; D – Manuscript Preparation; E – Funds Collection Abstract Purpose: Sprint performance plays a major role in success of feld-based team sports such as soccer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between sprinting performance and both lower and upper extremity explosive strength in young soccer players. Material: One hundred forty-seven soccer players (mean±SD; age 11.6±1.66 years, height 143.2±11.8 cm, body mass 37.1±10.2 kg and training experience 1.11±1.5 years) voluntarily participated in this study. The sprinting performance of each player was determined using their 5, 10, 20 and 30m single sprint times. The lower and upper extremity explosive strength were evaluated by standing long jump and medicine ball throwing tests respectively. Prior to the study, each of the players was given detailed information about the risks and injuries they could encounter during the study, and parental consent was obtained by their signatures on informed voluntary consent forms since the subjects were under the age of 18. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from Ankara University Medical Faculty’s Surgical and Medical Research Ethics Committee. Results: The results indicated a strong relationship between sprinting performance and horizontal jump performance (r=-.671– -.764; p=0.001) and also a large relationship between sprinting performance and upper extremity strength (r=-.633 – -.703; p=0.001). The sprint performance (n=147) also signifcantly correlated with body weight (r=-.345 – -.373; p=0.001) and height (r=-.445 – -.505; p=0.001). Conclusions: The study results suggest that upper extremity strength is as important as the lower extremity strength for sprinting performance and that trainers should emphasize lower and upper extremity strength in training intended to improve sprinting performance. Keywords: sprinting performance, standing long jump, explosive strength, football Introduction 1 For reasons such as high physical requirements, frequent change in exercise intensity and the vast number of movement profles, in soccer, both adults and children must maintain their physical capacity at an optimal level. For a soccer player, this relates to having several superior physical characteristics. Among these characteristics, sprinting speed plays a major role in the success of feld- based team players such as soccer players. For instance, it was reported in an analysis that a total of 360 goals scored during the 2007-2009 soccer seasons of Germany’s Bundesliga and that 45% of the goals scored were achieved by straight sprinting and that straight sprinting was the dominant activity of players when scoring [1]. The average sprinting distance of a player during a soccer match was reported to be 600 meters [2]. 96% of this distance was shorter than 30 meters [3]. Accordingly, velocity, particularly the maximum velocity before reaching 30 meters, is a subject to be addressed. Defning the factors that affect sprinting velocity in the © Gürkan Diker, Sürhat Müniroğlu, Sadi Ön, Hüseyin Özkamçı, Abdulkerim Darendeli, 2021 doi:10.15561/26649837.2021.0102 frst 30 meters will contribute to improving sprinting performance. Lower and upper extremity strength is also considered to be affect sprinting performance. The standing long jump test can be used to determine lower extremity strength. This is a single jump attempting to make as much horizontal movement as possible in the air with both feet parallel to each other [4]. It is generally used to evaluate the lower extremity explosive strength of athletes [5, 6]. The medicine ball throw test was also used to measure upper extremity explosive strength. Individual physical and physiological properties should be taken into account when evaluating the results of these tests. Age is an important factor. The movement system is affected by age-related changes, and these changes affect physical performance [7]. The improvement of acceleration and maximum velocity is possible through proper exercises during childhood [8]. Some studies examined the relationship between velocity and strength in soccer in the literature [9, 10]. The inadequacy of the studies on the relationship between sprinting performance and both lower and upper body explosive strength in young soccer players is the starting point of this study. ORIGINAL ARTICLE