Validity and reliability of a tower climb test for the assessment of anaerobic performance in urban firefighters
| dc.contributor.author | Clarke, Melissa | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Gaul, Catherine Ann | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2012-04-26T21:36:03Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2012-04-26T21:36:03Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2012 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 2012-04-26 | |
| dc.degree.department | School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education | |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Science M.Sc. | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to determine the validity and reliability of an 8-flight tower climb test (TCT) to assess anaerobic performance in urban firefighters. Twenty-five professional urban firefighters participated in the validity testing of the TCT versus the Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAT) over 2 randomly sequenced testing sessions. Test-retest reliability was assessed separately in 21 active male and female participants over 2 TCT trials. During both validity and reliability testing for the TCT, participants ascended a firefighting training tower as fast as possible from a 1.7m running start while wearing firefighter protective equipment. Time was measured and power was calculated from the foot of the training tower to the top of the first (height = 1.75m) and eighth (height = 13.89m) flights of stairs. During the other session assessing TCT validity, participants completed a 30-second WAT using a resistance of 85gkg-1 body weight (BW). Several significant correlations were found including those between TCT power and: 1) mean WAT power generated for the duration equivalent to TCT time (r = 0.869), 2) peak power for the first 2 seconds of the WAT (r = 0.868), and 3) WAT peak power (r = 0.864). TCT test-retest performance in 21 active males and females showed that the test is highly reproducible. The mean time of completion of the 8-flight TCT was 21.81 + 5.03 seconds and 21.38 + 4.86 seconds for Trials 1 and 2, respectively. Intraclass correlations for time and power data from the first and eighth flights ranged from 0.94 to 0.99, and coefficients of variance ranged from 2.0% to 7.5%. These findings provide strong evidence that the TCT is a valid and reliable field-based assessment of occupation-specific anaerobic performance in urban firefighters. | en_US |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1828/3916 | |
| dc.language | English | eng |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.rights.temp | Available to the World Wide Web | en_US |
| dc.subject | firefighter | en_US |
| dc.subject | anaerobic test | en_US |
| dc.subject | tower climb | en_US |
| dc.title | Validity and reliability of a tower climb test for the assessment of anaerobic performance in urban firefighters | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |