Advancing Field-Based Vertical Jump Analysis: Markerless Pose Estimation vs. Force Plates.

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics and Sports Science
• Human Movement Analysis
• Rehabilitation Technology

Background:

• Countermovement vertical jump (CMJ) is a key metric for lower body power assessment in sports and rehabilitation.
• Traditional CMJ analysis relies on expensive and lab-bound motion capture or force plate systems.
• There is a need for accessible, field-deployable tools for CMJ performance evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the accuracy of MMPose, a markerless 2D pose estimation framework, for analyzing CMJ performance.
• To compare CMJ metrics derived from MMPose with those obtained from gold-standard force plates.

Main Methods:

• Twelve healthy participants completed five CMJ trials, simultaneously recorded by force plates and a smartphone camera.
• Analysis focused on vertical velocity profiles and temporal variables (jump duration, peak height, velocities).
• Statistical comparison involved Bland-Altman analysis, correlation coefficients (r), and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC).

Main Results:

• MMPose demonstrated strong agreement with force plates for CMJ analysis (r = 0.992).
• Temporal variables showed high reliability (ICC > 0.9) with minimal systematic differences.
• Markerless system exhibited negligible effect sizes for most analyzed variables.

Conclusions:

• MMPose provides a cost-effective and practical markerless solution for CMJ analysis.
• This technology is suitable for field-based assessments where force plates are inaccessible.
• MMPose facilitates scalable, data-driven movement analysis in sports performance and rehabilitation.