The Relationship Between Functional Hopping Performance and Foot Posture Index in Elite Female Handball Players

Abstract

The study aimed to determine the relationship between anatomical foot posture and functional jump performance in elite female handball players. The study was performed according to a randomized repeated measures crossover design. Twenty-nine volunteer elite female handball players (age 19.62 +/- 1.18 years, height 174.31 +/- 5.93 cm, weight 64.62 +/- 5.08 kg, and BMI 21.29 +/- 1.70 kg/m2) participated in the study. Single leg hop for distance (SH), triple leg hop for distance (TH), crossover leg hop for distance (CH), medial side triple hop (MSTH), 90 degrees medial rotation hop (MRH), single leg vertical jump (SLVJ), and counter movement jump (CMJ) tests were performed to determine the functional jump performance of the subjects. In addition, the foot posture of the subjects was evaluated with the Foot Posture Index (FPI-6). The normality of the data was tested using the Shapiro-Wilk test, and it was found that they followed a normal distribution. Paired Samples T-Test and One-Way ANOVA test were used in the comparison analyses. The relationship between variables was evaluated using the Pearson Correlation test. Significant differences existed between the dominant (DS) and non-dominant (NDS) sides in SH, TH, MSTH, and MRH tests. No significant difference was found between jump test limb symmetry indexes (LSI). There was no significant difference between DS and NDS sides in FPI total scores, but significant relationships existed between some FPI-6 criteria and jump tests. Although the results showed that the subjects had differences in functional performance on the DS and NDS, the LSI values were within the safe range. In addition, it can be said that foot posture affects functional jump performance in elite-level female handball players.