Participants are required to kneel on a gym mat keeping their hips in a slightly flexed position and to slowly lower themselves in a controlled manner as far as they could towards the ground. When they can no longer lower themselves as such, they are instructed to utilise their arms to buffer the fall and touch their chest off the ground, while maintaining tension in their hamstrings. Once their chest touches the ground they are instructed to immediately return to the starting position by pushing up with their hands

The single-leg hamstring bridge is performed with the athlete lying on the ground with one heel supported by their partner, the hip in approximately 45° and the knee in approximately 20° of flexion. The participants cross their arms across the chest and push down through the heel to lift their buttocks off the ground. The participant should allow their buttocks to touch the ground momentarily and then the hip should be extended to 0°.

Participants are required to kneel on a gym mat and flex their hips and knees to approximately 90 degrees. They then allow their body to descend towards the ground by extending at the knees and hip simultaneously. When they can no longer lower themselves as such, they are instructed to utilise their arms to buffer the fall and touch their chest off the ground, while maintaining tension in their hamstrings. Once their chest touches the ground they are instructed to immediately return to the starting position by pushing up with their hands

Week 1 - 1 session per week consisting of 2 sets of 5 reps of the exercise Week 2 - 2 sessions per week consisting of 2 sets of 6 reps of the exercise Week 3 -3 sessions per week consisting of 3 sets of 6 reps of the exercise Week 4 - 3 sessions per week consisting of 3 sets of 8 reps of the exercise Weeks 5 and 6 - 3 sessions per week consisting of 3 sets of the exercise. Set 1 with 12 reps, set 2 with 10 reps and set 3 with 8 reps

This will be measured using devices that measure the eccentric strength of the hamstrings during the Nordic hamstring exercise. The devices are called the Hamstring Solo device and the Nordbord device. Participants will kneel on the padded surface of the device with their lower limbs held in position just above the ankles. The ankle supports have load sensitive cells. The participants will be asked to complete the nordic hamstring exercise. This involves them folding their arms across their chest and slowly lowering themselves towards the ground by allowing their knees to slowly straighten. The load cells will record the force (newtons) during the exercise for each leg.

This will be measured using devices that measure the eccentric strength of the hamstrings during the Nordic hamstring exercise. The devices are called the Hamstring Solo device and the Nordbord device. Participants will kneel on the padded surface of the device with their lower limbs held in position just above the ankles. The ankle supports have load sensitive cells. The participants will be asked to complete the nordic hamstring exercise. This involves them folding their arms across their chest and slowly lowering themselves towards the ground by allowing their knees to slowly straighten. The load cells will record the force (newtons) during the exercise for each leg. The distance from the load cells to the knee joint will be measured (meters) to calculate the moment in Newton meters for the exercise

Isometric knee flexor strength will be assessed by placing the participant in prone with the hip in 0° extension and 30° in knee flexion. The investigator will hold the dynamometer 5cm above the lateral malleolus in the posterior midline. The participant will be asked to bend their knee by attempting to pull their heel towards their bottom

Participants will perform three maximal 30 metre sprint tests with 4 minutes of recovery in between. Time elapsed will be recorded by timing gates placed at 0m, 5m, 15m, and 30m. Participants will start from a standing split position. The first timing gate will be triggered at initial toe off of the back leg. Times will be recorded and mechanical sprint variables (maximal horizontal force production, maximal horizontal power output and maximal theoretical velocity) will be calculated using an Excel spreadsheet (Samozio et al., 2016). The participants best time of the three attempts will be recorded.