(42) THE STANDING POWER THROW IS A VALID ASSESSMENT OF POWER AND EXPLOSIVENESS FOR ARMY ROTC CADETS

The Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) is a battery of standardized field tests designed to assess various aspects of physical fitness among United States Army personnel and Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets. The standing power throw is one of six different field tests that comprise the ACFT battery. While the standing power throw is primarily intended to assess power and explosiveness, there are few studies examining its validity.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which standing power throw performance is related to measures of power and explosiveness derived from laboratory-based testing that relies on force data.

Methods: Fourteen Army ROTC cadets (12 men, 2 women) volunteered to participate in this ongoing study. The mean (± standard deviation) age, mass, and height of the cadets were 20.8 ± 2.3 years, 79.6 ± 13.5 kg, and 174.8 ± 7.2 cm, respectively. The cadets were from Military Science Levels I (n = 4), II (n = 4), and III (n = 6). All cadets performed the standing power throw as part of their standard ACFT testing. The standing power throw involves throwing a 10-pound medicine ball backward and overhead for maximal distance. For the laboratory-based testing, cadets completed countermovement jumps on a force platform that recorded ground reaction forces. Metrics related to power and explosiveness were derived from the vertical ground reaction force data, including peak velocity, peak power, maximal rate of power development, and the modified reactive strength index (ratio of flight time relative to jump contraction time, where higher values reflect greater explosiveness). Pearson product-moment correlation analyses were conducted to assess the relationships between standing power throw performance (toss distance) and the metrics derived from countermovement jump testing. Correlation coefficients (r values) of 0.20-0.39, 0.40-0.59, 0.60-0.79, and ≥0.80 were considered to reflect weak, moderate, strong, and very strong relationships, respectively. 95% confidence intervals (95% CI = [lower bound, upper bound]) were also generated for the correlation coefficients. RESULTS: There were strong, positive relationships between standing power throw distances and peak velocity (r = 0.69, CI 95% = [0.26, 0.89]), peak power (r = 0.77, CI 95% = [0.41, 0.93]), maximal rate of power development (r = 0.71, CI 95% = [0.29, 0.90]), and modified reactive strength index values (r = 0.65, CI 95% = [0.18, 0.88]) (Figure 1), which indicates that better standing power throw performance corresponds with greater power/explosiveness.

Conclusion: Our results indicate that standing power throw performance is strongly correlated with metrics related to power and explosiveness derived from forces recorded during countermovement jump testing. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: This suggests that the standing power throw is a valid field-based assessment of power and explosiveness for ROTC cadets and military personnel in general.

Acknowledgements: This research was funded by an internal seed grant supported by Mayo Clinic Health System and the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.