Validating Methods of the Standing Broad Jump Test

The Standing Broad Jump (SBJ) is a field test widely-used to approximate athletes’ lower-body power. Horizontal jump distance is measured from toes placed on a starting line to the heel of rearmost foot upon landing. However, this does not consider foot-length. Consequently, a longer foot length may be at a disadvantage than a shorter foot. This study aimed to investigate whether the current field-based method is valid for assessing SBJ by comparing to lab-based motion capture. Nine participants completed 3 SBJs. Jump distance was measured from Toe-to-Heel (TH), Toe-to-Toe (TT), and Heel-to- Heel (HH) using field-based measurements and were compared to a motion-capture system. A repeated-measures analysis of variance test revealed that jumps from TH were significantly different from motion capture using ankle joint centre displacement (p<0.001), and both HH and TT methods (p<0.001). There was no significant difference between the HH and TT (p>0.05), or between the TT and HH compared to motion-capture (p>0.05). A correlation revealed that foot length was significantly related to the magnitude of measurement error (R=0.962, p<0.001). These findings suggest that SBJ might be best administered by measuring jump distance from the same part of the foot at the start and end of the test.