(48) LOWER-BODY NEUROMUSCULAR PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF ELITE PROFESSIONAL MALE FUTSAL PLAYERS: POSITION-SPECIFIC ANALYSIS

Purpose: Futsal, a five-a-side indoor version of soccer, is an internationally popular game played on a smaller court with a reduced number of players. The unique aspects of this game have a considerable impact on the on-court physical performance demands placed on the athletes during training and competition. The purpose of the present study was to examine position-specific differences in lower-body neuromuscular performance characteristics of elite professional futsal players within both eccentric (ECC) and concentric (CON) phases of the countermovement vertical jump (CMJ). Methods: Twenty-two athletes (height= 180.0±5.8 cm; age= 23.8±3.1 years; body mass= 78.8±7.9 kg) competing in the top-tier national league in Europe volunteered to participate in the present study (8 wings [W], 5 pivots [P], 5 defenders [D], and 4 goalkeepers [G]). Upon completion of a standardized warm-up procedure, consisting of dynamic stretching exercises and low-intensity futsal-specific movements, each athlete stepped on a uni-axial force plate system (ForceDecks Max, VALD Performance, Brisbane, Australia) sampling at 1000 Hz and performed 3 CMJs with no arm swing (hands on the hips during the entire movement). Body mass-dependent metrics were expressed in relative terms, and the average value across 3 CMJs was used for performance analysis purposes. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine between-group statistically significant differences (p< 0.05). Results: No differences were detected across playing positions in relative ECC peak force (F_[3,19]=0.654; p=0.590; W: 23.8±4.7; G: 25.8±2.4; P: 22.9±2.7; D: 24.7±2.1 N/kg), relative ECC peak power (F_[3,19]=0.697; p=0.565; W: 16.1±4.4; G: 19.3±6.3; P: 14.4±7.9; D: 17.3±3.2 W/kg), relative CON peak force (F_[3,19]=0.249; p=0.861; W: 25.9±2.7; G: 26.7±4.5; P: 25.7±2.2; D: 25.2±1.7 N/kg), relative CON peak power (F_[3,19]=1.868; p=0.169; W: 55.3±4.5; G: 53.4±7.3; P: 53.3±2.1; D: 48.6±4.1 W/kg), reactive strength index-modified (F_[3,19]=1.687; p=0.203; W: 0.51±0.08; G: 0.50±0.03; P: 0.54±0.07; D: 0.45±0.05), and countermovement depth (F_[3,19]=0.510; p=0.680; W: -30.6±7.9; G: -28.1±7.9; P: -24.7±2.0; D: -27.2±3.1). Conclusions: Despite tactical rules and regulations of the game of futsal that involve four distinct playing positions (G, W, D, P), the results reveal an absence of position-specific differences in any of the CMJ force-time metrics examined in this study within both ECC and CON phases of the jumping motion. Practical Applications: Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the CMJ profile of this specific cohort of athletes seems to be uniform and not capable of making distinct classifications in lower-body neuromuscular performance characteristics between position-specific on-court competitive demands. Acknowledgements: None