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Participation in sports can place numerous physical demands on the athletes who partake in them. Many of these sports may require the athlete to repeat the same motions countless times. Concerning a sport such as baseball or softball, a player may throw or hit with the same side of their body possibly leading to altered ranges of motion and strength asymmetries.1-3 Other sports may require the players to utilize both sides of their body equally, but lengthy playing careers in any sport may result in changes in the range of motion, force producing capabilities, and overall symmetry of one’s body. Of increasing importance to the sport scientist is the question: is asymmetry a cause for concern or is it merely a product of increasing efficiency in a given sport task. According to Knapik et al4, a bilateral isokinetic strength imbalance of 15% or greater is consistent with a high risk of injury when concerning knee flexion and extension. Nadler et al5 also demonstrated contralateral strength imbalances of the hip f lexors were predictors of low back pain in 163 collegiate athletes. However others have shown contrary findings. Bennell and colleagues6 failed to establish a relationship between strength testing, symmetry, and hamstring injury. Buekeboom et al.7 found significant strength asymmetries in 25 collegiate track sprinters and middle distance runners but also failed to link those to any injury predictability. Potential injury is not the only concern when considering asymmetry. One must also consider if there is any detriment to performance resulting from asymmetry. To date there has been a limited amount of research investigating the relationship between force production symmetry and performance. Most of the previous research has investigated unilateral asymmetry and sought to correlate single leg jumping performance with sprinting and change of direction performance.8-10 Considerably less research has investigated bilateral force production asymmetry and the majority examined previously injured populations.11-12 Yoshioka et al20 assessed bilateral strength asymmetry in a computer simulation model, and their results indicated that jump height was not affected by strength asymmetry and that the stronger leg possibly compensated for the weaker leg. If this was assessed on human subjects, the compensation of the stronger side may not be adequate to make up for the weaker side and the results may be different. To our knowledge, this has not been tested on human subjects, and there is a need for

Isometric force production symmetry and jumping performance in collegiate athletes