The reliability of a real time wearable sensing device to measure vertical jump

Vertical jump is one of the most important basic skills because it is widely used in many different sports (e.g. blocking and hitting in volleyball, layups and jumps shots in basketball, heading in soccer). Our research examines the validity of the VERT (TM) (Mayfonk Athletic Company) wearable sensing device, designed to measure height jumped. The VERT is quite small measuring 4.98 cm in length, 0.79 cm in width and 2.18 cm in height. It consists of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) 3X gyroscope - 3X accelerometer worn near the waist of the athlete. Real-time data is transmitted to a smart-phone or tablet via Bluetooth. Recorded data includes last jump, best jump, jump average, and jump amounts. The objective of the following analysis was to compare the recorded VERT height with a video analysis using Dartfish (TM). Fifty children ranging in age from 3-12 years old from a local elementary school in Calgary Canada participated in the study as part of a broader performance analysis class. The trial consisted of three jumps and the best jump was used for analysis. Results from this study show that VERT can be used to accurately assess vertical jump height in young children as long as they can jump higher that the minimum threshold. One limitation of the device is that the battery life of the unit is only 30 minutes. However, the VERT can be used to measure jump height for athletes in game situations such as Volleyball and Basketball. It also has the potential to be used for real-time data feedback to motivate young students to improve their jumping performance. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.