ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Exercise Physiology
Lower-Limb Asymmetries in Jump Athletes During Single-Leg Drop Jump
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
- 2College of physical education and health, Guilin Institute of Information Technology, Guilin, 541214, China, Guilin, China
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Background: This study investigated lower-limb biomechanical asymmetries during single-leg drop jumps (SLDJ) in elite male long and high jumpers. Methods: Twenty athletes performed SLDJ from 30-cm and 40-cm heights using dominant and nondominant legs. Three-dimensional kinematic and kinetic data were collected using a motion capture system and force platforms. Measured variables included joint angles, moments, peak vertical ground reaction force (Peak vGRF), loading rate, reactive strength index (RSI), and absolute symmetry index (ASI%). Data were analyzed using a two-way repeated-measures ANOVA. Results: The dominant leg exhibited significantly greater ankle range of motion (p < 0.05), hip joint moment (p < 0.05), ankle joint moment (p < 0.001), and peak vGRF (p < 0.001) compared to the non-dominant leg. Furthermore, knee joint moments (p < 0.05) and RSI (p < 0.001) were significantly greater at the 40 cm height than at the 30 cm height. The ASI% for the peak vGRF (30cm: 10.74% ± 9.24%,40cm: 14.87% ± 13.75%) and the loading rate (30cm: 15.47% ± 14.81%, 40cm: 20.27% ± 9.80%) exceeded 10%, which indicated asymmetry between the two legs during the single-leg drop jump impact. Conclusions: These findings suggest a trend wherein inter-limb asymmetry during the single-leg drop jump appeared to become more pronounced with increasing drop height. This observation may offer valuable insight for sport-specific performance assessment and targeted injury prevention.
Keywords: lower limb extremity, Biomechanics, Athletic Performance, Drop jump, asymmetry
Received: 09 Sep 2025; Accepted: 03 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Zhang, Zhou and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yong Zhou, zhouyong@guit.edu.cn
Yuliang Sun, ysun@snnu.edu.cn
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