Bilateral practice improves dominant leg performance in long jump.

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Biomechanics
• Motor Learning

Background:

• Bilateral practice benefits are established for upper extremity tasks and team sports.
• Research on lower extremity, unilaterally performed sports is limited.
• Contralateral transfer from bilateral training in unilateral lower limb sports is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of bilateral practice on contralateral transfer in a unilaterally performed lower extremity sport (long jump).
• To compare the long jump performance of the dominant leg after bilateral versus unilateral practice in adolescent athletes.

Main Methods:

• Sixty-one adolescent athletes were divided into bilateral and unilateral practice groups.
• Both groups trained for 12 weeks, with the bilateral group training both legs and the unilateral group training only the dominant leg.
• Jumping performance of the dominant leg was measured at pre-test, post-test, and retention-test.

Main Results:

• The bilateral practice group showed significantly greater performance increases in the dominant leg compared to the unilateral group.
• Performance gains for the dominant limb were 5.2% (post-test) and 7.4% (retention-test) for the bilateral group, versus 3.4% and 4.5% for the unilateral group.
• These findings indicate a superior contralateral transfer effect from bilateral practice.

Conclusions:

• Bilateral practice enhances performance in the dominant leg for unilaterally performed lower extremity sports like the long jump.
• Integrating bilateral training into early athletic development programs is recommended for track and field athletes.
• Bilateral practice may be a key strategy for optimizing performance and preventing imbalances in athletes.