Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess value of jump height variation as an indicator of neuromuscular fatigue in response to three acute interventions: (1) incremental leg cycling until volitional exhaustion, (2) 70 drop jumps, (3) 24 hours sleeplessness; and (4) during 6-week period within a basketball competition season. Material and methods: The typical markers of metabolic fatigue (blood lactate), exercise-induced muscle damage (muscle soreness, decrease in torque, increased blood creatine kinase activity), cognitive and emotional fatigue (information-processing speed and mood state) and volume of playing time of basketball players were analyzed in relation to changes in jump height. Results: The findings of the study were: (1) metabolic exercise caused a major drop in jump height, which was correlated with blood lactate accumulation, and the recovery of both was rapid; (2) the jump height drop was associated with the muscle-damage condition, although the reduction in jump height was much smaller and the recovery was longer compared with that observed after metabolic exercise; (3) jump height did not change significantly after 24 h of sleeplessness, regardless of the fact that cognitive and emotional fatigue was evident; and (4) jump height variations did not accompany the stress magnitude of players during the basketball competition period. Jump height carries some value as a neuromuscular fatigue indicator in certain acute circumstances, but has limited value in estimating cumulative stress caused by extended basketball training or competition.
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