Reliability of sports related functional tests with emphasis on speed and agility in young athletes

The aim of the present investigation was to test the reliability of two sports related functional tests, a speed test (slalom-test) and an agility test (hurdle-test). Eleven athletes aged 11 years (8 boys, 3 girls) participated voluntarily in the study. All subjects completed four different test sessions for both the slalom-test and the hurdle-test using six standard track hurdles placed at 2-m intervals along a 12-m length of track. There were no significant differences between testing sessions for either the slalom-test (P=0.99) or the hurdle-test (P=0.96), showing no systematic variation between test times. The intraclass correlation coefficients were 0.96 and 0.90 respectively, indicating a good reliability. We conclude that the slalom-test and the hurdle-test are reliable sports related functional tests for measuring speed and agility in groups of young athletic individuals.