The aim of this master’s thesis was to examine the effect of hurdle height on mechanical, temporal, and kinematic variables during consecutive vertical jumps. The main objective was to determine the maximum hurdle height at which athletes are still able to maintain a short ground contact time (approximately 180 ms), which is characteristic of reactive strength performance, and to investigate how jump technique changes with increasing hurdle height. The study was based on the assumption that higher hurdles require greater technical adaptations, which may affect the efficiency of plyometric training. The research sample consisted of 17 students from the Faculty of Sport, all of whom had completed coursework in athletics (mean age: 24.4 ± 5.4 years). A force plate (model 9287A, Kistler, Winterthur, Switzerland) was used to collect mechanical and temporal data (jump height, ground contact time, vertical acceleration in the eccentric and concentric phases, braking and take-off speed in the horizontal direction). A high-frequency video camera (Panasonic DMC-FZ200, Panasonic Corporation, Kadoma, Osaka, Japan) was used for 2D sagittal plane analysis of kinematic variables (trunk lean, and angles at the ankle, knee, and hip joints). The hurdle heights were 0.15 m, 0.30 m, 0.45 m, 0.60 m, and 0.75 m, presented in a randomized order.
Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 29 (IBM Corporation, New York, USA). To compare dependent variables (jump height, ground contact time, vertical acceleration, and take-off speed) between hurdle heights, a one-way ANOVA was used along with Bonferroni post-hoc tests.
The results showed no statistically significant differences in jump height, ground contact time, or vertical acceleration across hurdle heights, although clear trends were observed. As hurdle height increased, contact time increased (from 0.177 s to 0.191 s), and vertical acceleration decreased, indicating reduced elastic response efficiency. Statistically significant differences were found in kinematic variables during hurdle clearance: trunk lean increased (from 6.4° to 33.8°), as did the knee angle (from 14.5° to 106.0°) and hip angle (from 13.5° to 113.9°). These findings suggest that higher hurdles require pronounced technical adaptations during the flight phase, while take-off and landing mechanics remain unaffected.
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