A Comparative Kinematic Analysis of Vertical Jump of Boys of Different Age Groups

DRA ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2024 ON “SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES” Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 [Special Issue 1] Year 2025 211 © 2025 Dr. Rekha Bhardwaj. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Conference Paper A Comparative Kinematic Analysis of Vertical Jump of Boys of Different Age Groups Dr. Rekha Bhardwaj D.P.E, Ch. Balluram Godara Government. Girls College, Sriganganagar, Rajasthan, India Corresponding Author: *Dr. Rekha Bhardwaj DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18053535 Abstract Manuscript Information Desert ecosystems, though often perceived as barren and lifeless, are complex and dynamic environments shaped by unique climatic and geomorphological factors. These ecosystems support a variety of plant and animal species that have adapted to extreme conditions of aridity, high temperatures, and nutrient-poor soils. The interplay between climate, geomorphology, and biodiversity in deserts has profound implications for ecosystem functioning, species interactions, and ecosystem services. This research explores how climatic variables such as temperature, precipitation, and wind, along with geomorphological factors like soil composition, topography, and erosion processes, influence the diversity and functioning of desert ecosystems. Additionally, the study addresses the challenges posed by climate change, human activities, and desertification on these fragile environments. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for conservation efforts and the sustainable management of desert landscapes in a rapidly changing world. ▪ ISSN No: 2583-7397 ▪ Received: 12-12-2024 ▪ Accepted: 28-02-2025 ▪ Published: 04-03-2025 ▪ IJCRM:4(SP1); 2025: 211-215 ▪ ©2025, All Rights Reserved ▪ Plagiarism Checked: Yes ▪ Peer Review Process: Yes How to Cite this Article Bhardwaj R. A Comparative Kinematic Analysis of Vertical Jump of Boys of Different Age Groups. Int J Contemp Res Multidiscip. 2025;4(6):211-215. Access this Article Online www.multiarticlesjournal.com KEYWORDS: Kinematic analysis, Vertical Jump, Segmentation Method, Elgons. 1. INTRODUCTION Sports and Physical Education include development of physical fitness and motor ability as one of its important objectives, which needs to be evaluated. Athletic power tests are quite possible and easy to administer at any level, starting from school through college and have been widely used in physical fitness and motor ability testing programmes. In many sports, jumping ability is a prime factor in terms of individual performance. Simple as well as specialized form of jumping, leaping and hurdling are clustered in a general DRA ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2024 ON “SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES” Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 [Special Issue 1] Year 2025 212 © 2025 Dr. Rekha Bhardwaj. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ category of skills called jumps. Jump is accomplished by propelling the body off the ground with the thrust from one or both legs. The method of launching the body into the air is the essential ingredient of the jump, but in many instances, the method of landing is important to skilful performance. Vertical jump is one of the oldest performance tests in physical education. It was Dr Dubley Sargent who first proposed the jump for height as a measure of motor ability. It has been labelled as a test of neuro-motor efficiency, a test of maximal rate of work output in proportion to body weight and a test of dynamic strength. It is primarily a test of the ability of the body to develop power in relation to the weight of the individual. From the principle of physics, the ratio of force per unit time applied to the mass of an object determines the speed with which it leaves the ground vertically, the force/mass ratio determines the height of the jump. The sequence of movement in the pattern of vertical jump is uncomplicated when the special arm action that occurs after the takeoff is disregarded temporarily, the fundamental pattern consists of four movements in the following manner:- 1. There is flexion at the hips, knees and ankles during the preparatory crouch. 2. The jump begins with vigorous forward and upward lift by arms. 3. The thrust is continued by forceful extension at the hip, knee, and ankle. 4. The body remains in extension until the feet are ready to retouch and then the ankles, knees and hip flex to absorb the shock of landing. The above discussion on vertical jump performance with regard to its contributing components, the technique of study employed there in clearly exhibits that even though a lot of work has been done, the vertical jump movement pattern has not been analysed against age. In physical education and sports, it is observed that here take place some variation in performance (structure of movement pattern) as a result of experience, advancement in age etc. Therefore, the present study has been undertaken with a view to bringing about a comparative kinematic analysis of vertical jump across two age groups of boys of age groups 18 - 20 years and 22-24 years. Kinematic Analysis In this study, kinematic analysis considered only the kinematic parameters of angles made by different segments at joints, the whole body’s centre of gravity during all four phases of vertical jump and its vertical displacement during the execution of the vertical jump. For kinematic analysis, the most suitable technique used at present is cinematography, which was not available, and in the absence of cinematography, selected still photography was used to obtain photo sequence of four phases of vertical jump. Keeping this in view, only four subjects in each group were considered, as a large sample could not be employed. The difference in results that has come in for want of cinematography and small sample size were considered as a limitation. Material and Methods Eight male students from the basketball match practice group, four each belonging to two different age groups, i.e. 18 to 20 years and 22 to 24 years, were selected as subjects for this study at random. To obtain a photo sequence of the four phases of vertical jump, the camera used was a standard one, i.e. Nikon model EM. The camera was mounted on a tripod and positioned at a right angle to the plane of movement at a distance of 5.50 meters from the wall. The height of the camera was kept at a constant height of 1.3 meters from the ground, and the camera was set up at a speed of 8/200. Four photographs, making a complete series of vertical jumps of each subject was taken into consideration. The photo sequence series consisted of four phases of vertical jump, namely the standing reach, the crouch, the vertical jump and reach and there landing. Mechanical Analysis Based on photographs obtained 'elgons' or stick figures, with the help of which the measurement of the vertical displacement of the total body's centre of gravity during the jump. Angles at different joints and the angle of inclination of the torso with the vertical were measured. The Elgons were developed by using the joint point methods in which the body's projection at the joints facing the camera was considered, and the centre of gravity of the whole body was found out by using the segmental method. Conversion Factor = Actual length of Reference Scale /Photographic length of reference scale Table 1: Height of Centre of Gravity of Subjects during Different Phases of Vertical Jump Performance and Its Displacement Subject Standing Reach (m) Crouch (m) Jump (m) Landing (m) Displacement (m) A 1.39 1.10 1.80 1.10 0.41 B 1.31 1.14 2.09 1.18 0.78 C 1.31 1.15 2.00 0.98 0.69 D 1.14 1.02 2.05 1.06 0.91 E 1.31 1.02 2.21 1.10 0.90 F 1.14 1.06 1.80 1.02 0.66 G 1.14 1.10 1.92 1.06 0.78 H 1.18 1.14 2.0 1.02 0.82 DRA ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2024 ON “SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES” Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 [Special Issue 1] Year 2025 213 © 2025 Dr. Rekha Bhardwaj. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Table 2: Angles of various Joints during Different Phases of Vertical Jump Performance Joints Subject Standing Reach (Degree) Crouch (Degree) Jump (Degree) Landing (Degree) Ankle joint A 112 90 120 90 B 110 95 110 80 C 115 88 135 10 D 110 100 140 75 E 114 100 142 80 F 112 90 138 80 G 113 92 150 100 H 100 96 120 120 Knee joint A 178 130 165 105 B 172 108 178 112 C 175 90 168 120 D 172 142 174 98 E 175 120 178 100 F 178 105 162 100 G 170 100 178 100 H 162 120 158 90 Hip joint A 5 40 3 42 B 8 50 3 35 C 4 32 5 60 D 4 26 52 2 E 6 35 0 42 F 2 48 40 38 G 1 50 0 42 H 12 36 10 34 Angle of inclination of torso with vertical A 4 40 -10 35 B 4 25 5 15 C 4 25 5 15 C 6 20 2 30 D 3 33 -5 15 E 5 50 -8 25 F 5 35 8 39 G -2 42 -2 -2 H 8 40 8 35 Analysis The comparative Kinematic analysis in the form of T-Ratio was applied to study the significance of difference in the position (height) of the centre of gravity during four phases of vertical jump performance and its displacement, as well as in angular modification at the different joints. Table 3: Comparison of Height of Centre of Gravity of Boys of Selected Age Groups during Different Phases of Vertical Jump Performance and Height of the Vertical Jump Phases of Vertical Jump Performance t-ratio t.05(6)= Standing Reach 0.71* 2.45 Crouch 0.96* 2.45 Jump 0.00* 2.45 Landing 1.12* 2.45 Total displacement of the centre of Gravity 2.00* 2.45 Height of vertical jump 0.457* 2.45 Not significant at 0.05 level. i) The height of the centre of gravity during standing reach ranged from 1.14 m to 1.39 m. The difference of means for the two age groups was found to be insignificant at 0.05 level of significance. ii) The height of the centre of gravity during crouch ranged from 1.02 m to 1.15m. The difference in means of the two age groups was insignificant at 0.05 level. iii) The height of the centre of gravity during jump and reach ranged from 1.80 m to 2.21 m. The difference in means of the two age groups was found to be insignificant at 0.05 level. iv) The height of the centre of gravity during landing ranged from 0.98 m to 1.18 m. The difference in means of the two age groups was found to be significant. v) The displacement of the centre of gravity during the vertical jump ranged from 0.41 m to 0.91 m. The difference in means of the two age groups was found to be insignificant at 0.05 level. vi) The height of the vertical jump ranged from 38 cm to 58 cm. The difference in the means of the two age groups was found to be insignificant at 0.05 level. DRA ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2024 ON “SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES” Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 [Special Issue 1] Year 2025 214 © 2025 Dr. Rekha Bhardwaj. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Table 3: Comparison of Angular Modifications at Different Joints for Boys of Selected Age Groups during Different Phases of Vertical Jump Joints t-ratio (at different phases) t.05(6) = SR C J L Ankle Joint 0.498 1.380 1.447 0.129 2.45 Knee Joint 0.70 0.990 0.349 0.367 2.45 Hip Joint 0.822 1.092 0.28 1.812 2.45 Shoulder Joint 1.902 0.221 0.285 1.542 2.45 Elbow Joint 9.545* 0.368 0.143 2.033 2.45 Angle of Inclination of the torso with the vertical 9.622* .206 0.732 0.110 245 *Significant at 0.05 level Key for phases of vertical jump performances: a) SR - Standing reach b) C - Crouch c) J - Jump d) L – Landing i) The difference in the means of two age groups with respect to modifications of angles during all four phases of vertical jump at the Ankle joint, Knee joint, Hip Joint and Shoulder were found to be insignificant at the 0.05 level. ii) The difference in angles at the elbow joint was found to be insignificant during crouch and jump and reach and landing; however, when the means of angles for boys of two age groups were compared, it resulted in a significant difference during the standing reach. iii) the angle of inclination of the torso with the vertical showed significant differences between the two age groups during the first two phases of vertical jump, i.e. standing reach, and crouch and insignificant differences during the other two phases of vertical jump, i.e. jump, reach and landing. Discussion of Findings The findings of the study revealed that the boys of the selected age groups did not differ significantly on any of the kinematic variables during the four phases of vertical jump when both groups were compared in this study. The finding about comparative kinematic analysis of vertical jump performance of selected age groups of boys not showing a significant difference may be attributed to the fact that both age groups of boys were almost of the same skeletal maturity groups, which did not differ significantly in height or leg strength. REFERENCES 1. Bangerter L, Baluer L. Contributive component in vertical jump. Research Quarterly. 1986;39:432. 2. Bunn JW. Scientific principles of coaching. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice Hall; 1972. p. 26. 3. Clarke HH. Application of measurement to health and physical education. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice Hall Inc.; 1976. p. 175. 4. Darling DE. A comparative study to determine the effect of heel raise and knee bent level exercise on the vertical jump. Completed Research in Health, Physical Education and Recreation. 1962;4:64. 5. Hay JG. The biomechanics of sports techniques. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice Hall; 1973. p. 129. 6. Higgins RC. An analysis of selected mechanical factors that contribute to the vertical jump height of four basketball players. Dissertation Abstracts International. 1972 Jun;32(12 Pt 1):6595A. 7. Sargent LW. Some observations on the Sargent test of neuromuscular efficiency. In: Meloy CH, editor. Recent studies in the Sargent jump. Research Quarterly. 1932 May;3:235. 8. Wells FR. The relationship of the strength–body weight ratio and height of the lower segments to the vertical jump. Completed Research in Health, Physical Education and Recreation. 1963;5:78. 9. Willson RK. The relative effect of various foot spacing on performance in the vertical jump. Completed Research in Health, Physical Education and Recreation. 1966;8:86. Creative Commons (CC) License This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. DRA ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2024 ON “SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES” Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 [Special Issue 1] Year 2025 215 © 2025 Dr. Rekha Bhardwaj. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS ▪ Desert Research Association (DRA), Headquarters – Jodhpur ▪ Nehru Study Centre, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur ▪ Government Girls College, Jhalamand (Jodhpur) ▪ Department of Geography, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar Government College, Sri Ganganagar In Collaboration with Kalinga University, Raipur (Chhattisgarh) Disclaimer: The views, opinions, statements, and conclusions expressed in the papers, abstracts, presentations, and other scholarly contributions included in this conference are solely those of the respective authors. The organisers and publisher shall not be held responsible for any loss, harm, damage, or consequences — direct or indirect — arising from the use, application, or interpretation of any information, data, or findings published or presented in this conference. All responsibility for the originality, authenticity, ethical compliance, and correctness of the content lies entirely with the respective authors.