The Relationship of Countermovement Jump Performance to Operational Readiness in United States Air Force Special Operators

Abstract Tomlitz, ST, Dawes, J, Abel, MG, and Potenza, MA. The relationship of countermovement jump performance to operational readiness in United States air force special operators. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000–000, 2026—Operational readiness signifies the degree to which special operations soldiers are physically capable of accomplishing occupational tasks. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between selected countermovement jump (CMJ)-derived neuromuscular performance characteristics and operational readiness assessment scores among United States Air Force Pararescuemen (PJs). Thirty-six male PJs (age = 37.06 ± 5.98 years, height = 178.73 ± 6.27 cm, body mass (BM) = 86.51 ± 8.97 kg, body mass index = 27.06 ± 2.24 kg/m 2 ) performed a series of tests, including a CMJ test and components of the tier II Operator Fitness Test (OFT). The CMJ-derived metrics (jump height, concentric impulse (CI), reactive strength modified, peak power (PP), PP/BM, concentric peak force, peak landing force, landing impulse, CI asymmetry, countermovement depth, eccentric PP/BM, force at zero velocity) were correlated with the tier II OFT events using bivariate Spearman’s correlations. The significance level of this study was set at ≤ 0.05. A large relationship was found between standing long jump and reactive strength index modified (RSImod) ( r s = 0.62, p = 0.012). Multiple power variables correlated with farmer's carry sprint performance, including CI ( r s = −0.59, p = 0.038), RSImod ( r s = −0.64, p = 0.007), PP ( r s = −0.71, p < 0.001), and relative PP (PP/BM) ( r s = −0.74, p < 0.001). These findings suggest that specific performance characteristics may serve as useful indicators of task performance in the OFT assessment.