Reliability, Validity and Sensitivity of Newly Developed Tennis-Specific Reactive Agility Tests

Abstract

Agility is one of the motor skills on which success in tennis performance depends, and the aim of this research was the development and validation of a new test for assessing preplanned and reactive agility in young tennis players. The sample of respondents comprised 50 young competitors with an average age of 12.34 ± 1.22 years who were ranked up to 50th in the national tennis association ranking and up to 300th in the international Tennis Europe ranking. Agility variables were measured with newly constructed tests for the assessment of preplanned agility (CODS) and reactive agility (RAG), which were constructed in such a way that subjects imitated specific movements in tennis. It can be concluded that the newly constructed tests of preplanned agility (CODS) and reactive agility (RAG) have a high degree of reliability. Additionally, the assumption that the reliability will be slightly higher for preplanned agility tests (CA = 0.92 and 0.92; ICC = 0.86 and 0.82) than for reactive agility tests (CA = 0.90 and 0, 89; ICC = 0.74 and 0.72) was proven to be accurate. The results also showed that the tests have satisfactory validity. Thus, the results of both tests show a good correlation (p = 0.6 and p = 0.55) with the T-test of agility. It can be noted that all measurements, that is, all results, are normally distributed and that the values of skewness and kurtosis are within acceptable limits. We can confirm satisfactory sensitivity and their applicability to the sample of young tennis players. In conclusion, the results of this research confirmed the hypothesis and showed that the newly constructed agility tests have extremely good metric characteristics, especially the reactive agility test. Thus, this paper proposed a new procedure for the assessment of preplanned and reactive agility in young tennis players, which will significantly improve and advance the existing procedures, and make the results more reliable and precise.

Predictors of Reactive Agility in Early Puberty: A Multiple Regression Gender-Stratified Study

“…Thus, we can confirm that TCODS in the here-studied boys was an indicator of “overall motor status”. Actually, this is in accordance with previous studies where authors examined predictors of RAG in competitive athletes, where significant correlations between the sport-specific CODS and RAG performances were reported of professional futsal players, young soccer players, young tennis players, and rugby league professional players [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Another important element additionally explains the importance of TCODS in predicting TRAG.…”

“…In brief, TCODS and TRAG had similar scenarios and consisted of similar movement patterns (please see Methods for details). While strong correlations between pre-planned and non-planned agility tests with the same movement patterns were well documented in previous studies, we have no doubt that it additionally contributed to the finding that TCODS was the only significant predictor of TRAG in this study [ 27 , 28 , 29 ].…”

The Effects of Biological Age on Speed-Explosive Properties in Young Tennis Players

“…The sport-specific change of direction speed (TENCODS) and reactive agility (TENRAG) variables were measured using tests that exhibit very good metric characteristics and are reliable and valid [ 16 ]. The tests were measured using the SportReact system (SportReact, Zagreb, Croatia) made up of laser tape sensors and LED screens with different signs and colors (16).…”

“…In the pre-planned change of direction speed test (TENCODS), the subjects know in advance which light will turn on; that is, they can plan in advance to run and play forehand or backhand shots. Each test was performed nine times with a 60-s intermission time between the measurement particles, and the mean measured value for both tests was taken for further processing [ 16 ].…”

Mobil Uygulamalar Aracılığıyla Koşma Egzersizleri İçin Performans Ölçümü

“…Bunun ötesinde, bu tür bir ölçüm, bireyin güçlü özelliklerini belirlemeye ve bu özellikleri en etkili şekilde kullanabilecekleri sportif disiplinlere yönlendirmeye yardımcı olabilmektedir (Draper et al, 2021;Süleyman Ulupinar & Özbay, 2020). Örneğin, bir bireyin hızlı tepki süresi ve koordinasyon yeteneği, onun tenis veya masa tenisi gibi hızlı refleksler gerektiren sporlarda başarılı olabileceğini gösterebilir (Sinkovic, Foretic, & Novak, 2022). Benzer şekilde, yüksek aerobik kapasite ve dayanıklılık, maraton koşusu veya triatlon gibi uzun mesafe dayanıklılık sporlarında başarı potansiyeli olduğunu ortaya koyabilmektedir (Lee, Snyder, & Lundstrom, 2019).…”