The reliability of vertical jumping tests is lower in children than in adults. The aim of this study is to determine whether prepubertal girls who practice a gymnastics-specific training are more reliable doing some vertical jumping tests than a control group of girls with matched ages.

Thirty-six prepubertal girls (19 gymnasts and 17 control), with ages ranging from 7 to 12 years, participated in the study. To study the reliability of the jumping capacity «between trials» and «between sessions» the following jumping tests were used: squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), countermovement jump with arm swing (CMJA), and drop jump (DJ). Test-retest was performed using 3 trials per session with a 48h gap between sessions.

A high intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC≥0.75) was observed between trials and between sessions for all tests. The reliability of CMJ was questionable because significant differences were found in the inter-trial and inter-session comparison (P≤.05).

We conclude that overall vertical jumping capacity is reliable from young ages, and artistic gymnastics practice for beginners does not improve the reliability for the majority of the vertical jumping tests.