Reliability of unilateral vertical leg stiffness measures assessed during bilateral hopping

The assessment of vertical leg stiffness is an important consideration given its relationship to performance. Vertical stiffness is most commonly assessed during a bilateral hopping task. The current study sought to determine the inter-session reliability, quantified by the coefficient of variation, of vertical stiffness during bilateral hopping when assessed for the left and right limbs independently, this had not been previously investigated. On four separate occasions, ten healthy males performed 30 unshod bilateral hops on a dual force plate system with data recorded independently for the left and right limbs. Vertical stiffness was calculated as the ratio of peak ground reaction force to the peak negative displacement of the centre of mass during each hop and was averaged over the 6-10th hops. For vertical stiffness, average coefficients of variation of 15.3% and 14.3% were observed for the left and right limbs respectively. An average coefficient of variation of 14.7% was observed for bilateral vertical stiffness. The current study reports that calculations of unilateral vertical stiffness demonstrate reliability comparable to bilateral calculations. Determining unilateral vertical stiffness values and relative discrepancies may allow the coach to build a more complete stiffness profile of an individual athlete and better inform the training process.