Within-Subject Consistency of Unimodal and Bimodal Force Application during the Countermovement Jump

• Main Authors: Jason P. Lake (Author), John J. McMahon (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: MDPI AG, 2018-11-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 2075-4663; 10.3390/sports6040143
• Keywords: jump strategy; force platform; jump monitoring; temporal phase analysis; Sports; GV557-1198.995
• Source: Sports, Vol 6, Iss 4, p 143 (2018)

Countermovement jump (CMJ) force data are often time-normalized so researchers and practitioners can study the effect that sex, training status, and training intervention have on CMJ strategy: the so-called force⁻time curve shape. Data are often collected on an individual basis and then averaged across interest-groups. However, little is known about the agreement of the CMJ force⁻time curve shape within-subject, and this formed the aim of this study. Fifteen men performed 10 CMJs on in-ground force plates. The resulting force⁻time curves were plotted, with their shape categorized as exhibiting either a single peak (unimodal) or a double peak (bimodal). Percentage-agreement and the kappa-coefficient were used to assess within-subject agreement. Over two and three trials, 13% demonstrated a unimodal shape, 67% exhibited a bimodal shape, and 20% were inconsistent. When five trials were considered, the unimodal shape was not demonstrated consistently; 67% demonstrated a bimodal shape, and 33% were inconsistent. Over 10 trials, none demonstrated a unimodal shape, 60% demonstrated a bimodal shape, and 40% were inconsistent. The results of this study suggest that researchers and practitioners should ensure within-subject consistency before group averaging CMJ force⁻time data, to avoid errors.