Anthropometry and gender influences on the arm swing's contribution to vertical jump heights

Healthy college-age subjects (43 men, 32 women) provided data to examine the effect of arm swing on the attainment of maximum countermovement vertical jump heights. Subject's data were collected from two laboratory visits. Maximum-effort jumps were performed, both with and without an arm swing at each visit, as peak height values were collected and recorded by an instrumented platform. A 2 (gender) x 2 (jump condition) ANOVA revealed an interaction, as jumps done with an arm swing done by men produced the highest maximum jump heights. Using two separate multivariate regression analyses, four anthropometric variables (height, body mass, upper leg length, lower leg length) explained a significant amount of variance in maximum height values for jumps done with and without an arm swing. Finally multivariate regression also revealed two upper extremity anthropometric measures (upper and lower arm lengths) accounted for a small (R $^{2} = $ 15% yet significant amount of variance in delta (jumps done with – without an arm swing) height values. Continued research should examine additional predictor variables in an attempt to explain more of the variance in jump height values.