Proposal for a highly practical test to measure the movement speed of badminton players

<p>Specialized tests are necessary to evaluate the movement speed of badminton players. However, the measurement methods should be simple and practical. Therefore, this study created a new test and examined its validity.</p><p>The participants were male high school badminton players: 13 experienced (5–12 years of badminton experience) and 10 beginners (less than 1 year of badminton experience). The participants undertook the 7-point touch test (7-PTT), and their results were compared. The 7-PTT involved touching shuttlecocks placed at seven locations on the court with a racket. In addition, a side step test was performed to confirm that there were no differences in basic agility ability. The side step test, a commonly used test in Japan, evaluated the players’ general agility. Data were examined using the Shapiro–Wilk, Levene’s test, and Student’s t-test.</p><p>Our results showed that, based on the 7-PTT, the experienced group (mean (M): 11.19 seconds, standard deviation (SD): 0.81) was significantly faster than the novice group (M: 12.22 seconds, SD: 0.70) (t=3.26, p=0.004, Hedge’s effect size (g)=1.30). In the side step test, there was no significant difference between the experienced group (M: 65.5 points, SD: 5.46) and the novice group (M: 64.5 points, SD: 6.12) (t=0.39, p=0.700, g=0.16).</p><p>Therefore, the 7-PTT may be an appropriate specific test for evaluating movement speed during badminton. Furthermore, the 7-PTT demonstrated practicality and ease of implementation in a competitive setting, indicating its high utility as a test.</p>