A biomechanical comparison of the vertical jump and Margaria power tests

Abstract

A comparison of two power tests was conducted using 12 athletes (N = 7 males, N = 5 females) from the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse track and field teams. The subjects were filmed in an outdoor setting performing the Margaria stair run test and the vertical jump test. Anaerobic power output and average vertical velocity were computed for each test based upon two methods, a standard or commonly used procedure and a more complex cinematographic procedure involving center of gravity displacement techniques. Using dependent samples, paired t-tests were conducted on the various combinations to determine if a significant difference (p < .05) existed between the two methods. All differences were statistically significant except two. The two insignificant results were produced when power and velocity values were compared between the cinematographic method for the stair run and vertical jump test. This would indicate that when determining anaerobic power output based upon mechanical principles, the Margaria and vertical jump tests appeared to produce similar scientific measures. It was also found that the standard method of the vertical jump test appeared to overestimate power outputs whereas the Margaria stair run test appeared to underestimate power outputs when compared to the cinematographic methods. Although it is still uncertain which test will provide the best measure of anaerobic power, a conclusion drawn from this study was that both tests can be considered functional because of providing average values which estimate human power output.