High injury rates in gymnastics have been suggested to be related to impact loading. This study examined the validity and reliability of a tri-axial accelerometer, mounted on the upper back, to estimate impact loads. Twelve female participants performed a continuous double legged hopping task and rebound jumps from a drop of 40, 60 and 80 cm. Peak resultant acceleration (PRA) showed moderate to good reliability. Correlation coefficients between ground reaction force (GRF) and PRA ranged from rs=0.860 for the continuous hopping task to rs= 0.608 for rebound jumps from 80 cm, and were all significant. The results of the current study support the use of PRA to estimate impact load in jumping tasks, and show potential for this measure to be employed in a gymnastics training setting.
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