Ways to improve methods of monitoring the coordination abilities of young basketball players aged 13-14

Background and Study Aim. Coordination skills are an important indicator of success for young athletes in team sports. Therefore, the methods used to monitor these skills should include reliable and valid tests of coordination. The purpose of this study is to identify ways to improve the monitoring of coordination abilities in young basketball players aged 13–14 years. Material and Methods. Basketball players aged 13–14 years participated in the study (n=35, training experience – 3–5 years). Twelve tests were used to assess the level of technical and tactical preparedness of the athletes. The reliability of these tests was evaluated by determining the correlation coefficients between the results of the first test and subsequent tests. The criteria for the informativeness of the tests were based on the experts' rank assessments of the coordination and technical preparedness of young basketball players. A 10-point scale was used for the expert assessment of players' technical skills, with each indicator evaluated from 1 to 10 points. Results. The data obtained indicate that all selected tests demonstrated reliability with correlation coefficients above r = 0.5. Tests assessing muscle effort, adjusting motor activity, sense of rhythm, spatial orientation, and reaction speed showed reliability coefficients sufficient for both individual and group assessments (r > 0.70). Slightly lower reliability coefficients were observed in the time taken to perform individual motor tasks. The validity of the tests was evaluated based on ratings of coordination and technical readiness, as well as overall test battery ratings. In most cases, the validity was not lower than r = 0.3, with some tests exceeding r = 0.5. The correlation coefficient between grades and the total rank score based on the coordination test battery ranged from r = 0.5 to 0.7. The coefficient of concordance showed a high level of agreement among experts regarding the effectiveness of the technical and tactical actions of young basketball players. Conclusions. The conducted study demonstrated the importance of developing and monitoring the coordination abilities of young basketball players during adolescence. The use of several homogeneous tests to assess each individual coordination ability allows for a more reliable evaluation. The need to identify specific types of coordination skills that play a key role in competitive basketball activities has been emphasized. Additionally, the use of a latent indicator in evaluating the coordination abilities of young basketball players will contribute to optimizing a differentiated approach in the training process.