Stretch Shortening Cycle in Childhood

The examination of stretch shortening cycle (SSC) in children became an interesting topic for research during the past years as it provides an important insight into the functioning of the neuromuscular system. This paper presents several studies related to children and their ability to jump. The reasons for children doing more poorly in jumping as compared to adults are complex and multi-factorial. Current data illustrate differences in biomechanical patterns, in the elicited ground reaction forces and in the neuromuscular activation obtained by electromyography (EMG) during jumping. Most of the findings converge towards the idea that children adopt a less mature and more inefficient technique which has some common characteristics with the “absorbing type” jump of adult jumpers displaying poor technique. The conclusion is that the children's deficit in jumping can be attributed to differences in technique that lead to less efficient stiffness regulation and in some cases, such as drop jumps, derive less benefit from the SSC mechanism.