TEST-RETEST AND INTER-RATER RELIABILITY OF VOLLEYBALL ACCURACY TESTS IN SCHOOL CHILDREN

The aim of this study was to examine the test-retest and inter-rater reliability of volleyball accuracy tests in a sample of school children. The study involved a sample of 46 school children aged 12-13 years (Height: 158.97 ± 5.39 cm; Mass: 52.20 ± 5.58 kg; Age = 12.4 ± 0.7 years) who had been participating in their school volleyball programs for at least one year. The sessions were organized over two separate occasions to assess test-retest reliability, with the same procedures followed each time. To evaluate inter-rater reliability, two raters independently recorded the performance of the participants, ensuring that the scoring was consistent and unbiased. Players were tested for the overhead and underhand passing, setting and serving. Perfect test-retest reliability (Interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) > 0.90; coefficient of variation (CV)% < 10%) was observed for setting and serving. Additionally, we found nearly perfect reliability for overhead (ICC = 0.84) and underhand passing (ICC = 0.72) with high CV% (> 10%). The results of the inter-rater reliability showed very high ICC’s (>0.89) for all the variables. The study demonstrated that the volleyball skill testing protocol provides consistent and reliable assessments for players, with no significant differences between test and retest sessions across all the evaluated skills.