The reliability of the prowler in high school male football players

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.