Countermovement jumps in pre-school children aged 3 to 6 years : how much can arm swing help in performance?

Petrić, Vilko (author), Gregorc, Jera (author), Ljubičić, Sanja (author)

Vertical jumping is a fundamental motor skill that develops rapidly in early childhood, yet the biomechanical contribution of arm swing in preschool-aged children remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate how arm swing influences countermovement jump (CMJ) performance in typically developing children aged 3 to 6 years. A total of 411 children (53.5% girls; mean age: 4.9 ± 1.1 years) from four European cities participated in this cross-sectional study. Each child completed five CMJs with and without arm swing using the Optojump system, measuring variables such as jump height, flight time, contact time, power, the reactive strength index (RSI), pace, and verticality. The results revealed a significant increase in jump height when using arm swing for both boys (+15%) and girls (+12.5%) (p < 0.001), yet power output, the RSI, pace, and verticality decreased significantly (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that preschool children are not yet biomechanically efficient in integrating arm movements into vertical jumping due to immature neuromuscular coordination. Although arm swing improves jump height, it does not enhance overall movement efficiency at this developmental stage. This study highlights the need for multidimensional and age-appropriate assessment protocols to better understand motor integration during early childhood.

• Language: English
• Keywords: biomechanics, coordination, countermovement jump, motor development, preschool children, reactive strength index, vertical jump
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 8 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 13, iss. 11, art. 387
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-175989
• UDC: 373.2:79
• ISSN on article: 2075-4663
• DOI: 10.3390/sports13110387
• COBISS.SI-ID: 257366019
• Publication date in RUL: 17.11.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Sports
• Shortened title: Sports
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2075-4663
• COBISS.SI-ID: 520262425

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: skoki, zamah z rokami, gibalna vzgoja, predšolski otroci

Projects

• Funder: University of Rijeka
• Project number: uniri-mladi-drustv-23-37
• Name: Morphological analysis of the evolutionary structure of children's bodies

• Funder: University of Rijeka
• Project number: uniri-iskusni-drustv-23-201
• Name: Biological variations in the motor patterns of early and preschool children