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RELIABILITY AND COMPARISONS BETWEEN VERTICAL JUMP MEASUREMENT DEVICES

Abstract

M. Chandler, J. Forbes, M. Lange, B. Royse, W. M. Silvers

Whitworth University, WA

Novel vertical measurement devices are regularly introduced to the coach and athlete markets. As such, it is essential to compare these devices to other validated modes of vertical jump measurement. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of, and differences between, the Vertec (VT), Just Jump System (JJ), G-VERT device, and My Jump 2 app (MJ2) for measurement of a maximal effort countermovement jump (CMJ) among healthy, moderately active university males and females. METHODS: Twenty-nine healthy, college-aged (18 - 23 y), moderately active participants (nmale = 9, nfemale = 20; 20.5 ± 1.0 y, 171.7 ± 10.2 cm, 69.4 ± 12.1 kg) completed three CMJ while simultaneously measured with four different vertical jump measurement devices in a single session. Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) were utilized to compare the reliability between jumps for each device. An ANOVA with repeated measures (p ≤ 0.05) was used to determine if there were differences in mean jump height between measurement devices. RESULTS: Statistical differences (p < 0.001) in mean jump height were discovered between devices (G-VERT: 43.1 ± 10.8 cm; VT: 44.2 ± 14.1 cm; JJ: 47.6 ± 12.7 cm; MJ2: 34.6 ± 10.7 cm) except for the G-VERT and VT (p = 0.382). It was also demonstrated that all devices had high jump-to-jump reliability (p = 0.005; VT: ICC = 0.970 - 0.992, MJ2: ICC = 0.958 - 0.988, G-VERT: ICC = 0.952 - 0.987, JJ: ICC = 0.948 - 0.986). CONCLUSION: All of the CMJ measurement devices demonstrated high reliability, but VT and G-VERT were the only devices that did not demonstrate considerable differences in maximal effort CMJ heights. This is important to note since both VT and G-VERT elicited significantly different jump heights than JJ, which was considered the “gold standard” of the present study. Further research should be conducted with a widely accepted “gold standard” for CMJ measurement, such as a force plate or motion analysis, rather than the JJ contact mat.

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