Female Team-Sport Athletes’ Physical Fitness and Jump Performance Kinematics After Plyometric Jump Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Plyometric jump training (PJT) can improve athletes’ physical fitness across a range of sports and populations. Nonetheless, the role of PJT in adult female team-sport athletes’ fitness, jump performance, and kinematics remains unclear, particularly given the increasing number of published, heterogeneous studies. This systematic review aimed to first examine the effectiveness of PJT in improving physical fitness and jump-performance kinematics in adult female team-sport athletes, and second, to provide evidence-based recommendations for PJT prescription for this population. A systematic literature search was conducted in the PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and EBSCO databases up to March 2026. The included studies recruited healthy female team-sport athletes (mean age: ≥ 18 years), incorporated a PJT programme ≥ 2 weeks in duration, included comparator groups, and assessed athletes’ physical fitness, jump performance, and/or kinematics. The risk of bias (RoB) was assessed using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale. Hedges’ g effect sizes (ES) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were reported using a random-effects model for meta-analyses. Statistical significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. Subgroup analyses were conducted based on the participant characteristics (height, body mass, sport) and PJT programming variables (duration, frequency, total sessions, weekly total jumps). The certainty of evidence was assessed using GRADE. Thirty-one articles were included (n = 609 participants), and 25 were meta-analysed. Two studies were categorised with high RoB (≤ 3 points), 20 studies achieved moderate RoB (4–5 points), and 9 studies achieved low RoB (≥ 6 points). Compared to controls, PJT improved countermovement jump (CMJ) height (ES = 0.550, p < 0.001), CMJ peak concentric velocity (ES = 0.623, p = 0.011), drop jump (DJ) reactive strength index (RSI) (ES = 0.926, p = 0.001), DJ height (ES = 0.721, p = 0.002), 10 m sprint time (ES = 0.712, p = 0.032), 20 m sprint time (ES = 0.709, p < 0.001), 30 m sprint time (ES = 1.018, p = 0.001), non-linear (agility) Illinois test time (ES = 1.225, p < 0.001) and T test sprint time (ES = 0.965, p < 0.001). Compared to PJT ≤ 6 weeks, longer interventions favoured DJ RSI (p = 0.008), 10 m sprint time (p = 0.001), and Illinois agility test time (p < 0.001). Impact of heterogeneity (I2) remained low (≤ 0.06%) in five analyses and moderate in the other four analyses (≤ 73.1%). The certainty of evidence was considered low to moderate for the study outcomes. Two studies reported that a total of three participants possibly sustained an injury during PJT. Adult female team-sport athletes’ fitness, jump performance, and kinematics improved after PJT when compared to the control condition, including CMJ height, CMJ peak concentric velocity, DJ RSI, linear sprint speed, and non-linear (agility) sprint speed. The improvements were particularly notable with longer interventions (≥ 8 weeks). Trial registration: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/NERCY