title: Reliability of sports related functional tests with emphasis on speed and agility in young athletes.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alricsson
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Harms-Ringdahl
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Werner
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013177:Sports / Q000502:physiology*; D013178:Sports Medicine / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis