Effect of eccentric overload training on change of direction speed performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

This study systematically reviewed and quantified evidence regarding the effectiveness of eccentric overload training (EOT) on change-of-direction speed (CODS) performance. A keyword search was performed in 30 April 2020 in eight electronic bibliographic databases: SPORTDiscus, PubMed, Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, Cochrane Library, Scopus, CINAHL and Google Scholar. A meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the pooled effect size of EOT interventions on CODS performance compared to the control group. Study heterogeneity was assessed by the I² index. Publication bias was assessed by the Begg’s and Egger’s tests. Eleven studies, including nine randomized controlled trials, one randomized crossover trial, and one non-randomized controlled trial met the eligibility criteria and were included in the review. Time of overall change-of-direction task completion among the EOT group was 1.35 standard deviations (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.18, 2.52) shorter than that in the control group. In conclusion, EOT was found effective in improving CODS performance compared to the control group. Future studies should adopt a randomized experimental design, recruit large and representative samples from professional team sports, and examine the effect of EOT on various measures of CODS performance among population subgroups.

KEYWORDS:

• Overload training
• eccentric strength
• deceleration
• change of direction
• intervention

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (NO.16BTY065) and the Leading Talents of Independent Research Program of Tsinghua University (NO.2016THZWLJ12). The funding source had no involvement in the study design, data collection and analysis, and writing and submission of the manuscript.