A TEMPORAL AND KINETIC COMPARISON OF THE KETTLEBELL SWING AND MAXIMAL VERTICAL JUMP

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the temporal and kinetic characteristics of the kettlebell swing to those of the maximal vertical jump in an attempt to understand how the kettlebell swing could potentially enhance vertical jump performance from the kinetic perspective. Twenty-five recreational athletes completed five two handed kettlebell swings and 5 maximal vertical jumps while ground reaction force data was sampled at 1200 Hz using two force plates. Variables related to power such as time to peak rate of force development (RFD), peak RFD, and average RFD were smaller in the kettlebell swing than the vertical jump. The lack of similarity between the kettlebell swing and vertical jump indicates the kettlebell swing may not be an appropriate training method for eliciting improvements in vertical jump performance at the 20% body weight load examined in this study.