Performance level discriminative validity of agility tests in youth tennis players

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Abstract
Introduction: Various studies have shown that the ability to change the direction of movement quickly plays an important role in achieving top performance in tennis. The main goal of this study was to compare different generic and tennis-specific agility tests to determine whether and to what extent they can differentiate youth tennis players in terms of their competitive success and can be used as a tool to identify talented players in youth tennis categories.Methods: Thirty-three youth tennis players took part in the tests, 21 boys and 12 girls (11.05 ± 0.59 years), all of whom competed at national level in the U12 category and were divided into three different performance categories. Five validated agility tests covering three different test types (generic pre-planned CODs/tennis-specific pre-planned CODs/tennis-specific reactive tests) were selected to determine whether the type of agility tests used makes a difference in predicting the future competitive success of youth tennis players.Results: Both intra-subject and inter-subject reliability proved to be high for all agility tests used (Cα .87-.97; ICC .83-.94). The results also demonstrated the construct validity of the test battery used, as a significant latent dimension was extracted and all tests were projected fairly evenly onto the common factor. The between-subjects ANOVA showed that the results of the different agility tests can successfully differentiate young tennis players in terms of their competitive performance. The players who belonged to a higher performance level achieved better results in all agility tests used. However, the differences were only significant between players with “high” (1st) and “low” (3rd) performance levels in all the tests used, and additionally between players with “average” (2nd) and “low” (3rd) performance levels in the three tennis-specific agility tests (p < .05).Discussion: The results of the study suggest that agility tests have the potential to discriminate between different quality levels youth tennis players, regardless of which type of test (generic/tennis specific pre-planned/tennis specific reactive) is used.

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