Common Vertical Jump and Reactive Strength Index Measuring Devices: A Validity and Reliability Analysis

Montalvo, S, Gonzalez, MP, Dietze-Hermosa, M, Eggleston, JD, and Dorgo, S. Common vertical jump and reactive strength index measuring devices: A validity and reliability analysis. J Strength Cond Res 35(5): 1234-1243, 2021-Several field-test devices exist to assess vertical jump, but they either lack proper validation or have been validated for the countermovement jump (CMJ) only. This study aimed to quantify the validity and reliability of metrics, including jump height and the calculated reactive strength index (RSI), obtained using the flight-time method from 4 different assessment devices with 3 different vertical jump modalities in comparison to a force platform (criterion assessment). The Optojump, Push-Band 2.0, MyJump2 mobile application, and What'sMyVert mobile application were used synchronously and together with the force platforms. Thirty subjects (17 males and 13 females; age ± SD: 23.37 ± 1.87 years) performed 5 repetitions of CMJ, squat jump (SQJ), and drop jump (DJ) with a standardized 90° knee flexion for all jumps. Relative reliability was determined by intraclass correlation (ICC) and absolute reliability by coefficient of variation (CV) analyses. Excellent reliability was considered as ICC > 0.9 and CV < 10%. Validity was obtained through an ordinary least products regression, ICC, and CV. Significance was set at p < 0.05. Reliability was excellent on jump height for the CMJ (ICC ≥ 0.98; CV ≤ 8.14%) for all instruments. With the exception of the Optojump, all instruments also had excellent reliability for the SQJ (ICC ≥ 0.98; CV ≤ 6.62) and DJ (ICC ≥ 0.94; CV ≤ 8.19). For the RSI metric, all instruments had excellent relative reliability (ICC ≥ 0.92), but none had excellent absolute reliability (CV ≥ 12.5%). The MyJump2 and What'sMyVert apps showed excellent validity on all jump modalities and RSI. The Optojump and Push-Band 2.0 devices both showed system and proportional bias for several jump modalities and RSI. Overall, both mobile applications may provide coaches with a cost-effective and reliable measurement of various vertical jumps.