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Test-Retest Reliability and Visual Perturbation Performance Costs During 2 Reactive Agility Tasks.
Ellen M Smith1, David A Sherman2,3, Samantha Duncan1
1College of Health and Human Services, The University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA.
Journal of Sport Rehabilitation
|July 20, 2024
Summary
New reactive agility tests show excellent reliability for assessing athletes
Area of Science:
- Sports Medicine
- Biomechanics
- Motor Control
Background:
- High rates of secondary injuries post-orthopedic surgery highlight limitations in current return-to-sport (RTS) testing.
- Traditional strength and functional tests often neglect crucial elements like visual search and reactive decision-making.
- This gap necessitates the development of more comprehensive and valid RTS assessment tools.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish the test-retest reliability of two novel reactive agility tasks.
- To evaluate the impact of visual perturbation on physical performance within these tasks.
- To explore the potential of these tasks as components of dynamic RTS evaluations.
Main Methods:
- Fourteen physically active individuals performed two reactive agility tasks (4-corner agility, color recall) incorporating reaction time, working memory, and pathfinding.
- Participants completed each task four times across two sessions separated by seven days.
- Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), standard error of measurement (SEM), and minimal detectable change (MDC) assessed reliability; paired t-tests evaluated the effects of stroboscopic visual perturbation.
Main Results:
- Both the 4-corner agility and color recall tasks demonstrated good-to-excellent test-retest reliability across various performance metrics (e.g., reaction time, time to target, errors).
- Visual perturbation significantly increased time to target, number of targets, and total test time, indicating moderate performance degradation (5%-12% cost).
- Reliability metrics (ICC, SEM, MDC) confirmed the consistency of performance in these reactive tasks.
Conclusions:
- The developed reactive agility tasks exhibit acceptable test-retest reliability.
- Visual perturbation demonstrably impairs performance, underscoring the importance of visual-cognitive factors in agility.
- These findings support the standardization and integration of such reactive tasks into dynamic RTS testing protocols.
