VALIDITY AND RELIABILTY OF THE SARGENT JUMP TEST IN ASSESSING THE EXPLOSIVE STRENGTH OF SOCCER PLAYERS

Abstract

The purpose of the this study was to check the validity and the intra and interday reliability of the Sargent Jump Test, as an instrument to measure the explosive strength of the sub-15 class soccer’s’ athletes. Forty-five soccer players from several clubs which dispute the Carioca Championship were assessed, randomly chosen, who performed one test in a Jump Platform and two Sargent Jump Tests, all of them in the same day and one more Sargent Jump Test 48 hours later. In all tests there were performed three jumps and only the highest one was computed. In order to assess the validity there were used the results from the Jump Platform and from the first Sargent Jump Test. In order to assess the intraday reliability, there were used the results from the first and the second Sargent Jump Test and to assess the interday reliability there were used the results of the first and the third Sargent Jump Test. For the normality assessment of the data it was used the Kolmogorov-Smirvov test. The validity and reliability were given through the interclass correlation coefficient with definition of absolute agreement of the Bland and Altman test, from the statistical pack SPSS 11, with a significance level of p<0,05. It was noted: validity (r=0,99, p=0,001), intraday reliability (r=0,99, p=0,001), and interday reliability (r=0,97, p=0,001). These results allow confirming that, for the considered sample, the Sargent Jump Test constitutes a useful and valid instrument to assess the explosive strength.