Using the reactive strength index modified to evaluate plyometric performance.

The ability to develop force quickly is a requisite ability in most sports. The reactive strength index (RSI) has been developed as a measure of explosive strength and is derived by evaluating jump height divided by ground contact time during the depth jump (DJ). At present, the RSI is typically used to evaluate DJ performance, because it is the only plyometric exercise with an identifiable ground contact time. The purpose of this study was to introduce a modification of the RSI (RSImod) that can be used to evaluate the explosive power of any vertical plyometric exercise. This study will also assess the reliability of the RSImod, evaluate the RSImod of a variety of plyometric exercises, and examine gender differences. Twenty-six men and 23 women served as subjects. Subjects performed 3 repetitions for each of 5 plyometric exercises including the countermovement jump (CMJ), tuck jump, single-leg jump, squat jump, and dumbbell CMJ. Data were analyzed using a 2-way analysis of variance to evaluate differences in RSImod between the plyometric exercise and the interaction between plyometric exercise RSImod and gender. The analysis of RSImod revealed significant main effects for plyometric exercise type (p <or= 0.001) but not for the interaction between plyometric exercise type and gender (p > 0.05). Results of pairwise comparisons indicate that the RSImod is statistically different between all plyometric exercises studied. Intraclass correlation coefficients indicate that RSImod is highly reliable for all of the exercises studied. The RSImod offers a highly reliable method of assessing the explosiveness developed during a variety of plyometric exercises.