WITHIN- AND BETWEEN-SESSION RELIABILITY OF POWER, FORCE, AND RATE OF FORCE DEVELOPMENT DURING THE POWER CLEAN

Although there has been extensive research regarding the power clean, its application to sports performance, and use as a measure of assessing changes in performance, no research has determined the reliability assessing the kinetics of the power clean across testing session. The aim of this study was to determine the within- and between-session reliability of kinetic variables during the power clean. Twelve professional rugby league players (age 24.5 +/- 2.1 years; height 182.86 +/- 6.97 cm; body mass 92.85 +/- 5.67 kg; 1 repetition maximum [1RM] power clean 102.50 +/- 10.35 kg) performed 3 sets of 3 repetitions of power cleans at 70% of their 1RM, while standing on a force plate, to determine within- session reliability and repeated on 3 separate occasions to determine reliability between sessions. Intraclass correlation coefficients revealed a high reliability within- (r >= 0.969) and between-sessions (r >= 0.988). Repeated-measures analysis of variance showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) in peak vertical ground reaction force, rate of force development, and peak power between sessions, with small standard error of the measurements and smallest detectable differences for each kinetic variable (3.13 and 8.68 N; 84.39 and 233.93 N.s(-1); 24.54 and 68.01 W, respectively). Therefore, to identify a meaningful change in performance, the strength and conditioning coach should look for a change in peak force >= 8.68 N, rate of force development >= 24.54 N.s(-1), and a change in peak power >= 68.01 W to signify an adaptive response to training, which is greater than the variance between sessions, in trained athletes proficient at performing the power clean.