Effects of 8-Week Strength Training on the Vertical Jump Performance of the Traceurs

The parkour is a physical activity that contains special technique applications and requires a great number of jumps. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 8-week strength training on the jump heights of the traceurs (parkour practitioners). A total of 12 traceurs, including 6 individuals as the control group and 6 individuals as the strength group, were included in the study. The control group was provided with parkour training sessions twice a week, and the other group provided with both strength and parkour training sessions twice a week. Each participant's vertical jumps were recorded with the high-speed camera in the validated My Jump 2 application. The mean age of the traceurs control group was 19±.89 years, 173.67±4.63 cm, body mass 66.5±5.32 kg; experimental group was 19.5±1.05 years, 175.83±8.86 cm, and body mass 67.67±7.20 kg. Also according to the results, it can be said that a significant increase was observed in countermovement jump (CMJ) vertical jump heights (p=0.028) of the study group at the end of the 8-week strength trainings compared to the control group and that the strength training provided a positive contribution to vertical jump heights. On the other hand, there was no significant difference (p=0.075) in the control group. At the same time, the CMJ height values of the participants who performed strength training increased 4.97±0.09%. Learning of the vertical jump heights, which is an important parameter for successful performance in traceurs, can enable the coaches and athletes to prepare a better training program.