The reliability and validity of react-run agility test assessment system

Abstract

Badminton is known as one of the fastest racket sports in the world. Therefore, it is important for the player to have excellent reactive agility to stay competitive in a badminton match. The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the React-Run, a new reactive agility assessment system for badminton players. Six subjects were divided into two groups, three male amateur players with experience in representing badminton clubs for competitions and three recreational players, who used to play badminton, were recruited for the experiment. The measurements were performed with the use of the React-Run system, where the experiment was conducted on an actual badminton court. The result of eight averages (in milliseconds) indicates reactive agility from different sensor locations (node) (i.e., Front, Front-Right, Right, Back-Right, Back, Back-Left, Left, and Front-Left) were stored and analyzed. The mean, standard deviation, and range were calculated for each outcome variable. Pearson correlation method and an independent t-test analysis were used to evaluate the construct validity of the React-Run system meanwhile the reliability (within-subject variation) was established using Cronbach’s alpha value. Results indicated that React-Run system showed good construct validity and reliability as it was statistically able to distinguish the performance of amateur and recreational badminton players (p-value < 0.05) and had internal consistency between the node sensors’ positions (Cronbach’s alpha value > 0.9).