A novel functional movement ability assessment method by integrating the ordered weighted averaging operator with important performance analysis approach

The functional movement screen (FMS) method serves as a vital evaluation tool for gauging sports injury risks of athletes. Traditionally, physical therapists, physical trainers, and coaches employ seven basic movement patterns to determine an athlete's susceptibility to injury. However, this conventional FMS approach overlooks two critical factors: the sensory pain cognition of the athletes themselves and the relative importance or weighting of the seven FMS test items. Such oversight leads to inaccurate assessment results. To address these limitations and enhance the efficacy of injury risk evaluation, this study proposed novel functional movement ability assessment (NFMAA) method. The proposed NFMAA method combined the ordered weighted averaging operator and the importance-performance analysis. Moreover, this study incorporated the athletes' sensory pain cognition into the assessment framework. In the validation phase, this study employed the functional motor ability assessment. The military academy freshmen located in Taiwan served as the case study. The calculation results were compared with the established calculation methods. Empirical findings indicate that the proposed NFMAA method can provide more comprehensive and accurate sports injury risk assessment results for athletes.