POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITATIONS IN THE BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF COUNTERMOVEMENT JUMPS - A METHODOLOGICAL STUDY

Possibilities and limitations in the biomechanical analysis of counter movement jump performance were examined using force plate data. Four m ale and 4 female sport students participated in the study. Software de signed to test jumping performance was used to evaluate recordings fro m a force plate and to compute net velocity and net displacement measu res for the center of gravity. In parallel, a film analysis incorporat ing Dempster's center of gravity model was used for a comparison. Vali dity of the computed kinetic measures was evaluated with a general ana lysis of the major error sources including the data acquisition and nu merical computations. Numerical integration procedures were found to b e a reasonable tool for calculating net velocity and net displacement parameters for a more detailed analysis of athletic jumping performanc e. On the other hand, it appeared that Dempster-like center of gravity models can cause errors that disqualify their use as validation crite ria for kinetic parameters.