Journal of Sports Science 4 (2016) 183-188 doi: 10.17265/2332-7839/2016.04.001 The Reliability of the Prowler in High School Male Football Players Granite Tano 1 , Alan Bishop 2 , Mike Climstein 3 and Mark DeBeliso 1 1. Department of Physical Education and Human Performance, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT 84720, USA 2. Athletics Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA 3. Exercise Health & Performance Faculty Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, NSW, Australia Abstract: Horizontal plane muscular power output is important in sports such as football especially for down lineman who must engage an opponent and push them for a number of yards. The Prowler resistance sled is a commonly used apparatus that aids in the development of horizontal plane muscular power output. However, there is limited documentation regarding the Prowler’s role as a strength and conditioning training modality as well as its potential use as an assessment tool for measuring horizontal plane muscular power output. Hence, the purpose of this study was to assess the reliability of the Prowler sled push in High School male football players. High School male football players (n = 16) performed two trials of the Prowler sled push 91 kilograms (200 pounds) for a distance of 9.1 meters (10 yards). Each trial was timed with a handheld stop watch with a 2-3 minute rest period between trials. The trial 1 and 2 scores were 5.14 ± 0.95 and 5.15 ± 0.88 seconds respectively. The interclass and intraclass reliability coefficients were r = 0.93 and ICC = 0.93. The standard error of the measure was SE m = 0.25 seconds with 90% confidence limits of U L : 0.36, L L : 0.20. The mean difference between trials was 0.01 ± 0.36 seconds (90% confidence limits of U L : 0.17, L L : -0.14). Within the parameters of this study, the Prowler sled push is a highly reliable field test for measuring horizontal plane muscular power output. Key words: Reliability, Prowler, football, high school. 1. Introduction The ability to improve speed and acceleration is an important athletic quality, which is crucial in a number of team (rugby union, football, soccer, hockey) and individual sports (sprinting, long jump, skating). The incorporation of sled training as part of strength and power training regimes is now common practice with various sports integrating its use for improvements in speed which is well documented in the literature [1, 2]. Although initial research has focused upon the benefits of sled training on improving speed [1], subsequent studies have investigated the optimal load [3-5], biomechanical analyses of sprinting kinematics (technique, stride length, contact time) [6, 7] and establishing coefficients of friction to determine the Corresponding author: Mark DeBeliso, Ph.D., professor, research fields: orthopedic biomechanics, mechanics and metabolics of sport movements and work-tasks, strength training for all walks of life, and master’s athletes. amount of work performed during the activity [8]. These studies have primarily focused upon sled pulling, whereas investigations into sled pushing are quite limited and have focused upon either bob-skeleton athletes [9], strongman athletes [10] or EMG muscle activation [11]. Many sports require a participant to engage an opponent (or sport implement) and push forward in the horizontal plane. This includes football down linemen, wrestlers, mixed martial arts, rugby athletes, bobsledders, as well as certain Crossfit and strongman events. Sled training, where the athlete pushes a loaded sled in the horizontal plane, closely mimics the horizontal plane power requirements of the aforementioned sports by removing momentum and forcing the athlete to overcome inertia. Sled pushing in the horizontal plane, should be beneficial with respect to transferring muscular strength and power that was developed during traditional strength and conditioning D DAVID PUBLISHING