Associations between vertical jump performance and Wingate anaerobic test outcomes in male volleyball players

Abstract Background Anaerobic performance is an important determinant of volleyball performance and is commonly assessed using the Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT). However, laboratory-based testing may not always be practical in applied sport settings. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between three vertical jump conditions and WAnT-derived variables in trained male volleyball players. Methods In this cross-sectional study, thirteen second-league male volleyball players performed squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump without arm swing (CMJ NAS), and countermovement jump with arm swing (CMJ AS). Participants subsequently completed a 30-s WAnT to assess absolute peak power (PPabs), relative peak power (PPrel), mean power (MP), and time to peak power (TTP). Differences between jump conditions were analyzed using the Friedman test with exact Wilcoxon signed-rank post hoc tests and Holm correction. Associations between jump performance and WAnT-derived variables were assessed using Pearson correlation coefficients, with Spearman correlations as a sensitivity analysis. Holm correction was applied across the 12 primary Pearson correlations. Simple linear regression analyses were performed to further examine the associations between PPabs and jump height. Results CMJ AS demonstrated significantly greater jump height than SJ and CMJ NAS (both Holm-adjusted exact p < .001). Positive associations were observed between PPabs and all jump conditions (SJ: r = .68; CMJ NAS: r = .73; CMJ AS: r = .78), with the largest observed correlation for CMJ AS. After Holm correction, only the association between PPabs and CMJ AS remained statistically significant (adjusted p = .021). PPrel was positively associated with all jump conditions ( r = .64–0.70), although none of these associations remained significant after Holm correction. Associations with MP were weaker ( r = .32–0.47). Negative associations were observed between TTP and jump height ( r = − .58 to − 0.65), but none remained statistically significant after Holm correction. Regression analyses showed that PPabs explained 46%, 53%, and 61% of the variance in SJ, CMJ NAS, and CMJ AS height, respectively. Conclusions Vertical jump performance was positively associated with WAnT-derived peak power in trained male volleyball players, with CMJ AS showing the largest observed association with PPabs. However, the correlations between PPabs and the three jump conditions did not differ significantly from one another, and only the PPabs–CMJ AS association remained statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons. These findings suggest that CMJ AS may provide a practical, sport-specific indicator of explosive performance in volleyball players, although the results should be interpreted cautiously given the small sample size.