Assessment of Explosive strength

[Oribi Bruno Oponjuru]

Dear,
I am an under graduate student of Kyambogo University, Kampala, Uganda. I am carrying out a research on establishment of explosive strength of sport science students in the department of sport science. The purpose of the study is to provide information that can help improve the perfomance of the students in their practical activities. I used a digital timer connected to a contact mat, ("Bosco ergojump system)and recorded the jump heights and contact time for the squat jumps, countermovement jumps and drop jumps on box heights of 8cm, 16cm, 24cm, 32cm, and 40cm.

How do I establish the explosive strength level of these students using these jumps scores? It is really a challenge to me as I have not accessed any information in regards to analysis, interpretation and implications of the results.

Please, I kindly request for guidance.

Kind regards to all.

Oribi Bruno Oponjuru
Kyambogo University, Kampala - Uganda.
Tel. +256 774 032 140
E-mail: oribioponjuru@yahoo.com

[Ross Miller]

Re: Assessment of Explosive strength

Hi Oribi,

Some additional variables you can calculate are:

- Knowing the jump height, you can calculate the vertical take-off velocity from projectile motion equations.
- Knowing the contact time and the vertical take-off velocity (and presumably the body mass) you can calculate the average vertical ground reaction force (GRF) from the impulse-momentum relation.

Neither of these variables directly tells you the explosive strength and they are both essentially linear functions of the data you already have, but they might give you some insights. I would say looking at contact times and average GRF is a good place to start. They may tell you something about how quickly the subjects developed GRF to jump to certain heights, which could be a measure of explosive strength.

Good luck with your study,
Ross