Relative and Absolute Reliability of a Modified Agility T-test and Its Relationship With Vertical Jump and Straight Sprint

Abstract

The aims of this study were to evaluate the reliability of a modified agility T-test (MAT) and to examine its relationship to the free countermovement jump (FCMJ) and the 10-m straight sprint (10mSS). In this new version, we preserved the same nature of displacement of the T-test but we reduced the total distance to cover. A total of 86 subjects (34 women: age = 22.6 +/- 1.4 years; weight = 63.7 +/- 10.2 kg; height = 1.65 +/- 0.05 m; body mass index = 23.3 +/- 3.3 kg x m(-2) and 52 men: age = 22.4 +/- 1.5 years; weight = 68.7 +/- 8.0 kg; height = 1.77 +/- 0.06 m; body mass index = 22.0 +/- 2.0 kg x m(-2)) performed MAT, T-test, FCMJ, and 10mSS. Our results showed no difference between test-retest MAT scores. Intraclass reliability of the MAT was greater than 0.90 across the trials (0.92 and 0.95 for women and men, respectively). The mean difference (bias) +/- the 95% limits of agreement was 0.03 +/- 0.37 seconds for women and 0.03 +/- 0.33 seconds for men. MAT was correlated to the T-test (r = 0.79, p < 0.001 and r = 0.75, p < 0.001 for women and men, respectively). Significant correlations were found between both MAT and FCMJ, and MAT and 10mSS for women (r = -0.47, p < 0.01 and r = 0.34, p < 0.05, respectively). No significant correlations were found between MAT and all other tests for men. These results indicate that MAT is a reliable test to assess agility. The weak relationship between MAT and strength and straight speed suggests that agility requires other determinants of performance as coordination. Considering that field sports generally include sprints with change direction over short distance, MAT seems to be more specific than the T-test when assessing agility.

Morning melatonin ingestion and diurnal variation of short-term maximal performances in soccer players

“…MAT was used to determine speed with changes of direction such as forward sprinting, left and right shuffling, and backpedaling (20). Participant began with both feet behind the starting line-A.…”

Differences in the acceleration, change of direction and jumping capacity between different ages soccer players

“…En un estudio realizado por Arin, Jansson, y Skarphagen (2012), obtuvieron correlaciones significativas entre un test de capacidad de cambio de dirección y la capacidad de aceleración en 10 y 20 m (r = 0.629, p < 0.01, r = 0.641, p < 0.01, respectivamente) pero, por el contrario, no encontraron correlaciones significativas entre el test de CODA y el test de aceleración en 5 m. En otros estudios realizados anteriormente (Chaouachi et al, 2009;Little & Williams, 2005;Wisloff, Castagna, Helgerud, Jones, & Hoff, 2004), en cambio, no obtuvieron correlaciones significativas entre las capacidades de cambio de dirección y de aceleración, al igual que sucedió en el estudio llevado a cabo por Sassi et al (2009), donde concluyeron que dichas capacidades eran independientes. Esta controversia en los resultados puede ser debida a que en los citados estudios se utilizaron distintos tipos de test para el CODA y diferentes distancias en los test de aceleración.…”

“…Se colocaron a 0.5 m del cono A (punto 0) y realizaron la salida cuando ellos lo consideraron oportuno, cumpliendo el recorrido expuesto en la Figura 1 y con desplazamiento libre. El descanso entre cada repetición fue de 3 min (Sassi et al, 2009). Todos los jugadores debían tocar la parte superior del cono con la mano .…”

“…Las manos se debían mantener siempre fijadas en la cintura (Maulder & Cronin, 2005). El protocolo para el VCMJAS fue similar al utilizado para el VCMJ, con la modificación de que los participantes podían utilizar los brazos libremente durante el salto (Sassi et al, 2009. El descanso entre cada repetición fue de 2 min.…”

Within - and between - Session Reliability of the Spider Drill Test to Assess Change of Direction Speed in Youth Tennis Athletes

“…Two commonly used CODS assessments are the modified t-test and pro-agility [11,22,23]. Both are argued to be suitable and practical methods for the assessment of CODS performance of tennis players due to their emphasis on both linear and lateral movement patterning, acceleration and subsequent deceleration, of which is considered highly important for tennis performance [6,7,11].…”