Kosta Goranovic; Jovica Petkovic; Rasid Hadzic & Marko Joksimovic

As it is currently played, volleyball is a game in which success depends in large measure on the athleticism of the participants. The aim of this research was to point out the importance of the cycle of stretching and shortening in different jumps for elite volleyball players. Thus, it is common for volleyball athletes to place considerable emphasis on jump training. Not surprisingly, overload injuries of the knee and ankle joints, both acute and chronic, occur frequently among volleyball players and are related to the volume of jump training and skill repetition. Understanding the biomechanics of jumping is therefore a prerequisite for designing effective training programs which minimize the risk of overuse injuries that may result from excessive jumping, and the repetitive mechanical loading of muscles and joints that are involved in jump training Muscles acting about a joint function naturally through a combination of eccentric (lengthening) and concentric (shortening) activations. In the lower limb, the stretch-shortening cycle is a reflex arc in which the tendomuscular system acting about the knee or ankle is eccentrically preloaded (stretched) in the loading or impact phase of the jump before concentrically shortening in the push-off or take-off phase.

KEY WORDS: Explosive movement; Ground reaction force; Muscular preactivation.

GORANOVIC, K.; PETKOVIC, J.; HADZIC, R. & JOKSIMOVIC, M. Rate of force development and stretch-shortening cycle in different jumps in the elite volleyball players. Int. J. Morphol., 40(2):334-338, 2022.