Development of a Novel Judo-Specific Ippon Reactive Agility Test: A Reliability and Validity Study

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Biomechanics
• Judo Performance Analysis

Background:

• Agility is crucial for judo performance.
• Existing tests lack specificity for judo's reactive demands.
• Need for a reliable and valid measure of reactive agility in judokas.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel judo-specific reactive agility test.
• To examine the test-retest reliability, validity, and discriminative validity of the new test.

Main Methods:

• Development and evaluation of the Ippon Reactive Agility Test (IpponRAT) in three stages.
• Thirty-four male judokas from the National Judo Team participated.
• Assessed movement time (MT), reaction time (RT), and decision-making time (DT); correlated with Special Judo Fitness Test (SJFT); evaluated discriminative validity based on competition level.

Main Results:

• IpponRAT showed high reliability for MT (ICC = 0.82) and good reliability for RT (ICC = 0.71), but poor reliability for DT (ICC = 0.36).
• IpponRAT MT correlated highly with SJFT (r = 0.62), and DT showed moderate correlation (r = 0.34).
• The test demonstrated strong discriminative validity, differentiating judokas by competition level (AUC > 0.7).

Conclusions:

• The Ippon Reactive Agility Test (IpponRAT) is a feasible, reliable, and valid measure for judo-specific reactive agility.
• IpponRAT can be used to monitor performance, assess return-to-sport readiness, and evaluate injury risk in judokas.