Relationship between Trunk Control during Unanticipated Disturbances and Athletic Performance in Adolescent Football Players

This study aimed to clarify the relationships between athletic performance and trunk control on the sudden unanticipated load in adolescent football players. Eighteen adolescent football players performed trunk-control tests, namely, front- and back-bridge tests, and field tests, namely, sprint, arrowhead agility, countermovement jump, and standing five-step jump tests. For the trunk-control tests, the angular velocity of the trunk was measured using an inertial sensor. The relationships between the field test and each parameter of the trunk-control tests were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficients. Sprint time was significantly and positively correlated with the angular velocity of the x-axis in the front-bridge (r = 0.743-0.701, p < 0.01) and back-bridge (r = 0.612-0.491, p < 0.05) tests. The arrowhead agility test was correlated with the angular velocity of the x-axis (r = 0.543, p = 0.020) and y-axis (r = –0.533, p = 0.023) in the front-bridge test, and that of the x-axis (r = 0.546, p = 0.019) in the back-bridge test. Since the x- and y-axes of the angular velocity indicate trunk rotation in both tests and trunk extension in front-bridge test, respectively, these findings indicated that the control of trunk rotation and extension is important for the optimal sprinting and change-of-direction performance.