Videographic Variability of Triple and Quintuple Horizontal Hop Performance

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Biomechanics
• Performance Analysis

Background:

• Horizontal hops assess athlete load tolerance and are key in monitoring and injury management.
• Temporal variables (flight, contact, total time) offer valuable diagnostic data.
• Gold-standard tools for hop analysis are costly and technologically demanding.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability of using a tablet and free software for analyzing temporal events in horizontal hops.
• To determine between-rater, within-rater, and test-retest variability of hop temporal measures.
• To establish an accessible alternative to traditional, resource-intensive assessment methods.

Main Methods:

• A reliability study involving nine healthy male athletes performing triple and quintuple horizontal hops over three sessions.
• Six raters assessed temporal events from video recordings to determine between-rater variability.
• One rater assessed within-session and test-retest variability, analyzing flight time, ground contact time, and total hop series time.

Main Results:

• Excellent between-rater consistency was found for all hop types (ICC = .85-1.00).
• Absolute and relative consistency measures demonstrated excellent reliability (CV ≤ 2.0%, ICC = .98-1.00).
• Test-retest variability showed acceptable absolute consistency (CV ≤ 8.7%) and good to excellent reliability for 10/16 variables (ICC = .81-.93).

Conclusions:

• A tablet and free digitizing software provide reliable temporal event detection during horizontal hops.
• This accessible approach has significant implications for power diagnostics and return-to-play assessments.
• Rehabilitation and performance professionals can confidently use this equipment for tracking hop performance.