Assessing Cognitive Performance in Badminton Players: A Reproducibility and Validity Study

Tanja van de Water, Barbara Huijgen*, Irene R. Faber, Marije Elferink-Gemser

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

42 Citations (Scopus)
562 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Fast reaction and good inhibitory control are associated with elite sports performance. To evaluate the reproducibility and validity of a newly developed Badminton Reaction Inhibition Test (BRIT), fifteen elite (25 +/- 4 years) and nine non-elite (24 +/- 4 years) Dutch male badminton players participated in the study. The BRIT measured four components: domain-general reaction time, badminton-specific reaction time, domain-general inhibitory control and badminton-specific inhibitory control. Five participants were retested within three weeks on the badminton-specific components. Reproducibility was acceptable for badminton-specific reaction time (ICC = 0.626, CV = 6%) and for badminton-specific inhibitory control (ICC = 0.317, CV = 13%). Good construct validity was shown for badminton-specific reaction time discriminating between elite and non-elite players (F = 6.650, p <0.05). Elite players did not outscore non-elite players on domain-general reaction time nor on both components of inhibitory control (p > 0.05). Concurrent validity for domain-general reaction time was good, as it was associated with a national ranking for elite (. = 0.70, p <0.01) and non-elite (. = 0.70, p <0.05) players. No relationship was found between the national ranking and badminton-specific reaction time, nor both components of inhibitory control (p > 0.05). In conclusion, reproducibility and validity of inhibitory control assessment was not confirmed, however, the BRIT appears a reproducible and valid measure of reaction time in badminton players. Reaction time measured with the BRIT may provide input for training programs aiming to improve badminton players' performance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)149-159
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of human kinetics
Volume55
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30-Jan-2017

Keywords

  • racquet sports
  • processing speed
  • reaction time
  • inhibitory control
  • elite athletes
  • EXPERTISE
  • SCIENCE
  • SPORTS
  • LEVEL

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