(39) THE OPTIMAL AMOUNT OF VERTICAL JUMP TRIALS NECESSARY TO YIELD THE HIGHEST JUMPING PERFORMANCE

The vertical jump is a power assessment test commonly used in various athletic settings to analyze an athlete’s performance often related to their sport such as hockey, basketball, etc. The vertical jump allows a simple, easy, and cost-effective option to evaluate an athlete’s lower body power. When reviewing the research literature involving the use of the vertical jump test, a vast majority of research studies suggest that two to three trial attempts were completed by each subject. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has determined if two to three trials is a sufficient amount of trials necessary to elicit a true peak (ie. the highest jump possible, with no further improvement occurring with successive trials) in vertical jump performance.

Purpose: To determine the optimal amount of countermovement jumps that would produce the highest jump possible in collegiate hockey players.

Methods: Thirty-one male collegiate ice hockey players participated in the study. The subjects had their height, weight, and body fat percentage recorded and then completed a dynamic warmup before the highest standing reach height, via a Vertec vertical jump tester, was recorded for each subject. Subjects were then allowed as many vertical jump attempts as possible to reach their max until there jumping performance remained the same or decreased for three consecutive trials. The mean number of vertical jumps, with respective standard deviations, were assessed using SPSS software.

Results: The mean jump results (76.55 + 6.68 cm) suggest athletes should be given a minimum of five (+ 1.84) vertical jump trials to reach their true max. By the fifth attempt, a cumulative percentage of 61.3% of the individuals had reached their max height. However, according to the cumulative percentage it is strongly encouraged athletes be given at least six trials as the cumulative percentage increases to 87.1% with the inclusion of an extra trial.

Conclusion: When assessing an athlete’s vertical jump performance, it is recommended to allow at least five to six maximal attempts for the athletes to elicit their true peak. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The inclusion of more trials is necessary in jumping performance assessment considering many training program decisions are made based upon an athlete’s peak performance. The current study’s results suggest that if only two to three trials were utilized, the athletes would have had their jumping performance underestimated with their true peak jumping height being unrecorded.  The results of this study may assist coaches and practitioners in obtaining true peak jumping values for their athletes by increasing the number of jump trials that athletes complete.

Acknowledgements: None