Validity and reliability of the Output sport device for assessing drop jump performance

Abstract

The devices for measuring plyometric exercise in field conditions are becoming increasingly prevalent in applied research and practice. However, before the use of a device in an applied setting, the validity and reliability of such an instrument must be determined. The study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of the Output Sport, an inertial measurement unit (IMU), through comparisons with a force plate for research purposes. A repeated measure test-retest study was performed. Reliability was assessed during single-session trials (i.e., intrasession reliability). A total of 34 national/university level athletes (13 females, 21 males) performed three drop jumps with a fall from 30 cm while both devices recorded ground contact time (GCT), flight time (FT), jump height (HJ), and reactive strength index (RSI). T-tests demonstrated that data collected from the IMU device were significantly different to the force platform for all reported variables (all p < 0.01). The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) demonstrated good-to-excellent reliability, but with a large range of confidence intervals (CI 95%) for GCT (0.825, 0.291–0.930), FT (0.928, 0.756–0.958), HJ (0.921, 0.773–0.964), and RSI (0.772, 0.151–0.907). The Bland-Altman test showed that the device overestimated contact times and underestimated the other variables. Upon landing, greater ground contact times (i.e., ≥0.355ms) were associated with higher reliability. These results suggest that a single IMU can be used to track changes somewhat accurately and reliably in jump metrics, especially when the GCT is greater than 0.355ms. It is recommended that before practitioners and trainers use the device as a cost-effective solution in the field, further research should be carried out to evaluate a range of data on the type of exercise to be performed.