ASSESSING THE EFFECTS OF COMPETION ON VERTICAL JUMP PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGIATE MALES

The vertical jump (VJ) test is often administered in various sport sectors such as the NBA and NFL combines in order to possibly predict future athlete success. The VJ test is designed to assess lower body peak power by having subjects explosively jump vertically and recording the maximum jump height. Previous research studies have examined different focal points and/or appropriate recovery protocols that may contribute to higher jumping performance in various types of athletes. However, many athletes perform in a competitive setting in their respective sports. Thus, replicating a “competitive environment” during a VJ assessment test setting may elicit an ergogenic effect on an individual’s jumping performance. PURPOSE: to determine if competition will have an impact on vertical jump performance in males with an athletic background. METHODS: Twenty-eight no less than averagely fit college aged males had descriptive data collected (i.e. age, HT, WT, BF%) and their reach height measured. Participants then completed a dynamic 8 min warmup and then received a 4 min passive recovery (PR) period. Subjects then completed four familiarization jumps in a counter movement manner and then had another 4 min of PR. After the 2nd 4 min PR period, participants completed six jumps for both jump series with thirty seconds of rest between jumps and 6 min of PR between each jump series. The jump series protocol consisted of two separate counterbalanced jump series. One series consisted of a solo jump (SJ) setting where the subject jumped alone. The competitive jump series occurred where one subject jumped against another subject. A paired-samples t-Test was used to analyze the highest SJ and CJ jumps with significance determined at an alpha level of 0.05. RESULTS: CJ (73.97 + 10.20 cm) was significantly different (p = 0.002) than SJ (72.75 + 9.86 cm). CONCLUSION: The results of the present study suggest that the VJ test competitive format may have elicited an increase in the VJ performance. Future research is needed to assess the effect of competition on VJ performance in female athletes as well as male athletes who specialize in sports with repetitive jumping movements.