Comparison Of Novel Hop Testing Method To Identify Decreased Performance And Asymmetries

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Hop testing is used to evaluate athletes that are returning to sport. Evaluating alternative tools that use less repetitive impact could put these vulnerable populations at lower risk for injury during testing. Limited research examines various plyometric tests and traditional hop testing at identifying decreased performance and asymmetries. PURPOSE: To examine the association between alternative and traditional hop tests in physically active adults. METHODS: Participants performed a series of seven hop tests in a randomized order including both single and double leg takeoffs for a single, double, and triple jump, and 2-1-2 bound. Three successful trials were performed for each jump. Left and right limbs were combined for all analyses. Spearman’s Rho correlations were performed to investigate the relationship between jump tests. RESULTS: Twenty physically active individuals (age 18 - 32; 11 female, 9 male) participated. There were large associations between single leg single, double, and triple jumps (r = 0.854-0.960, p<0.001).There were large association between double leg single, double, and triple jumps (r = 0.908-0.923, p<0.001). There were large associations between single leg single jump and double leg single jump (r = 0.939, p<0.0001), single leg double jump and double leg double jump (r = 0.886, p<0.0001), and single leg triple jump and double leg triple jump (r = 0.851, p<0.001). There were large associations between single leg single jump and 2-1-2 jump (r = 0.853, p<0.001), single leg double jump and 2-1-2 jump (r = 0.900, p<0.0001) and single leg triple jump and 2-1-2 jump (r = 0.904, p<0.001). There were large associations between double leg single jump and 2-1-2 jump (r= 0.929, p<0.001), double leg double jump and 2-1-2 jump (r = 0.905, p<0.0001), and double leg triple jump and 2-1-2 jump (r = 0.832, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: There was a high positive correlation between all single leg jumps tested and the 2-1-2 jump as well as all double leg jumps and the 2-1-2 jump. These results indicate that utilization of double leg 2-1-2 jump may be a safer precursor to examining performance before initiating single leg jumps. These results demonstrate that the 2-1-2 jump and double leg jumps may be utilized without the increased load of repetitive landing impact on a unilateral limb as seen in traditional hop testing.