Development of an Agility Test for Badminton Players and Assessment of Its Validity and Test-Retest Reliability

• Published in: International journal of sports physiology and performance Vol. 11; no. 3; p. 305
• Main Authors: Loureiro, Jr, Luiz de França Bahia, de Freitas, Paulo Barbosa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.04.2016
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Athletes; Athletic Performance - physiology; Exercise Test - methods; Female; Humans; Male; Racquet Sports - physiology; Reproducibility of Results; Running; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1555-0273
• DOI: 10.1123/ijspp.2015-0189

Badminton requires open and fast actions toward the shuttlecock, but there is no specific agility test for badminton players with specific movements. To develop an agility test that simultaneously assesses perception and motor capacity and examine the test's concurrent and construct validity and its test-retest reliability. The Badcamp agility test consists of running as fast as possible to 6 targets placed on the corners and middle points of a rectangular area (5.6 × 4.2 m) from the start position located in the center of it, following visual stimuli presented in a luminous panel. The authors recruited 43 badminton players (17-32 y old) to evaluate concurrent (with shuttle-run agility test--SRAT) and construct validity and test-retest reliability. Results revealed that Badcamp presents concurrent and construct validity, as its performance is strongly related to SRAT (ρ = 0.83, P < .001), with performance of experts being better than nonexpert players (P < .01). In addition, Badcamp is reliable, as no difference (P = .07) and a high intraclass correlation (ICC = .93) were found in the performance of the players on 2 different occasions. The findings indicate that Badcamp is an effective, valid, and reliable tool to measure agility, allowing coaches and athletic trainers to evaluate players' athletic condition and training effectiveness and possibly detect talented individuals in this sport.