The strength and power profile of junior and senior female rugby league athletes

Flannery, L, Secomb, JL, West, MA, Compton, HR, and Dascombe, BJ. The strength and power profile of junior and senior female rugby league athletes. J Strength Cond Res 38(12): 2129–2135, 2024—The purpose of this study was to compare the lower-body strength and power profiles of the various female rugby league (RL) competition levels, thereby establishing normative data for these athletes. Seventy-nine female RL athletes from 3 different competition levels: junior-state (n 5 45, age: 17.5 6 0.6 years), senior-state (n 5 15, age: 24.3 6 3.7 years), and senior-national (n 5 19, age: 25.4 6 4.0 years) participated in this study. All testing was completed in a single session at the beginning of preseason, with the following assessments performed: countermovement jump (CMJ), isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP), and bilateral and unilateral isometric hip adduction and abduction strength. One-way analyses of variance with Bonferroni post hoc analyses, revealed that junior-state athletes exhibited significantly lower IMTP peak force (PF) and relative PF (rPF), and CMJ height compared with the senior-state and senior-national athletes. Importantly, senior-national athletes demonstrated significantly greater body mass (80.9 6 14.6 kg) than senior-state athletes (70.9 6 8.1 kg), but no significant differences were identified between these athletes for any IMTP or CMJ measure. Finally, the senior-national athletes possessed significantly lower unilateral hip adduction rPF (0.13 6 0.04 N·BW²¹) and adduction to abduction strength ratio (0.92 6 0.14) than senior-state athletes (0.17 6 0.03 N·BW²¹ and 1.04 6 0.13, respectively), which may have implications for noncontact lower-body injury risk. This study highlights the importance of practitioners prescribing training to increase the lower-body strength and power of junior-state RL athletes. Whereas, for senior-state athletes progressing to senior-national levels, the focus should on maintaining or improving relative strength and power, while increasing their body mass to enhance preparedness for the greater contact demands at that level.