Effects of age, gender and activity level on counter movement jump performance and variability in children and adolescents

The aim of this study was to investigate counter movement jump performance and variability in a large population of children and adolescents with respect to age, gender and activity level. 1835 subjects performed three counter movement jumps with arms akimbo on a force platform. The subjects were divided into 6 age groups and three activity level groups. Jump height and maximum rate of force development were calculated for all jumps. The best trial out of three was considered for further calculations. Variability of both parameters was indicated by the coefficient of variation over three jumps. Both parameters increased with increasing age while their variability decreased. Boys jumped higher than girls. Regarding maximum rate of force development female subjects showed higher values. The active subjects jumped higher and with less variability than the sedentary group. Jump height and maximum rate of force development are good parameters to describe the development of jumping performance regarding age, gender and activity aspects. Due to the high variability of maximum force rate development, however, this parameter has to be interpreted with caution in subjectspecific assessments.