Affiliations: [a] Exercise and Sports Science Program, The University of
Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA | [b] Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University
of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA
Note: [] Address for correspondence: John Caruso, Ph.D., 312 Chapman
Hall, 800 S. Tucker Drive, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA. Tel.: +1 918 631 2924; Fax: +1
918 631 2068; E-mail: john-caruso@utulsa.edu
Abstract: 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.
