Dr Normative values for agility in Brazilian adolescents

Abstract

Detecting young talents is one of the most significant challenges in the sports sciences. Early performance assessment is an essential component of talent discovery programs. This study aimed to establish normative values and verify the reproducibility of the Illinois Agility Test (IAT) while assessing the agility of Brazilian adolescents. A total of 649 school adolescents of both sexes between 14 and 18 years old participated in the study performing the IAT. To assess the psychometric quality regarding reproducibility, part of the sample performed the test in duplicate with a minimum interval of 24 hours and a maximum of 72 hours.  The following percentile values were established for the male IAT: (P5 < 17.76 sec) for “Excellent”; between P40 and P60 (19.37 to 20.24 sec) for “Regular”; P80 > 21.21 sec as “Much below average”. For the female IAT, the following values were established (P5 <20.84 sec) for "Excellent"; between P40 and P60 (22.88 to 23.85 sec) for "Regular"; P80> 25.08 sec “Much below average”. Bland-Altman analysis pointed to an ICC of 0.936. Agility performance curves for adolescents were developed, collaborating to detect talent when the IAT obtained a performance less than or equal to 17.76 sec for males and 20.84 sec for females.