Validity and reliability of a new portable and cost-effective photoelectric cells device for measuring vertical jump performance: "The ADR Jumping"

The vertical jump is one of the most used testing movements to assess athlete`s physical performance and fatigue status in several sports. However, low-cost, portable, field-based, and reliable methods are needed to measure jumping performance. The aim of the current investigation was to assess the validity and reliability of a new photoelectric cells device (ADR) for measuring the vertical jump height. Twenty-three trained male participants (age: 24.8 ± 5.2 years, body mass: 74.2 ± 7.3 kg; height: 1.76 ± 0.04 m) performed four maximal countermovement jumps (CMJ). Flight time-derived jump height was extracted simultaneously from three devices including a force plate (FP) (Kistler Quattro-Jump, criterion measurement) and two photoelectric cells (PC) devices (ADR and Optojump). The ADR mean CMJ height measurements demonstrated substantial validity compared to both FP and Optojump (r = 0.98 p < 0.01). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for reliability were classified as good to excellent for the three devices (0.986-0.994). All devices showed similar coefficients of variation (CV%), classified as very good (3.21-3.85), whereas observed standardized typical error values (STE) were small (1.29-1.39). The ADR Jumping device can be considered an affordable, reliable, and valid method to measure vertical jump height thereby making it a practical resource for coaches when monitoring the training process.
© Copyright 2025 Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part P: Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology. SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.

Bibliographic Details
Subjects:
Notations:technical and natural sciences
Tagging:Validität Reliabilität Optojump
Published in:Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part P: Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology
Language:English
Published: 2025
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/17543371231174665
Volume:239
Issue:4
Pages:621-628
Document types:article
Level:advanced