Planning, Development And Validation Of Beach Volleyball Set Skill Test

Introduction
Beach Volleyball as a new sport is needed skill test to evaluate the athletes’ skill performance. Therefore a training
intervention program could be followed and useful results for the coaches could be obtained. According to [1] a test
should first be valid in that it measures what it was intended to measure. Secondly it should be reliable (defined as the
degree of consistency of the test). Therefore, the aim of this study was to report on the planning, development and
validation of a beach volleyball set skill test.

Methods
Setting and participants: The participants were beach volleyball players (n=40), 21 boys and 19 girls, 13-26 years old
(M=17.22 sd=6.08). The participants were divided into three age groups, group A=novice, (n=18, 11-13 years old and
2-10 months experience), group B=median, (n=12, 14-16 years old and 1-5 years experience) and group C=experts
(national level) (n=10, 16-27 years old and over 5 years experience). They performed the test the same day, during
beach volleyball practice. Prior to the test, all participants were given the same instructions on how to perform the test.
The test began after two trials and the next day the participants repeated the test (Fig. 1).
Establishing validity and reliability:
Three types of validity: content, criterion
and construct validity, and two types of
reliability: internal consistency
(intraclass) and stability are generally
defined in the literature and were also
examined in this study.

Results
Content validity: In this study the content of the test was selected by two expert beach volleyball coaches who judged
the test, after taking into account all the parameters (age, level and sex of participants) and special characteristics of the
game (Safrid, 1986). Also five expert athletes were performed the test first, to establish that the elements of the test are
essential for the skill and represent the basic elements of skill.
Criterion validity: To assert criterion validity, test scores can be compared with one or more external variables to
ascertain the test’s validity (concurrent validity) [1] According to [2] in physical education and sport this alternative
criterion could include such aspects as expert’s judgments of coaches. The criterion used in this study was the
subjective skill estimation of two expert coaches. The Pearson correlation was used to identify the correlation between
the score skill test and the subjective evaluation of the skill (r=.99, p<0.01).
Construct validity: The known group difference method was used to study whether the test distinguished between these
groups. A multivariate analysis of variance was applied to detect differences between the three groups (novice, median
level and experts) and the results indicated that there were significant differences between groups (F(2,39)=47.89, p<0.05)
(table 1).
Reliability: Internal consistency is the degree to which people perform similarly throughout all parts of the test (Barrow
et al, 1989) and it was obtained in this study by using multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures
(ANOVA) to determine the variance among every skill test trial. There was significant measure effect (Wilks’
lambda=.39, F(9,31)=5.401, p<0.05 and e2=.611). Also a test-retest in all groups was used to determine the reliability of
the set skill test. The correlation coefficient between repeated measures were high and significant (r=.94, p<0.01).

Discussion/Conclusion
The set skill test procedure for beach volleyball was examined to determine it degree of validity and reliability for
assessing set skill performance. The requirements for content, construct and criterion validity according to the literature
[3; 4] were achieved in this test. In terms of reliability, the results of the internal consistency and the test-retest method
were in acceptable margins. These results indicated that the beach volleyball set skill test is a valid and reliable
instrument and it could be used by coaches to test the ability of players to set the ball effectively.

References
[1] Safrit, M. J. (1986) "Introduction to measurement in physical education and exercise science". St. Louis, MO:
Times Mirror/Mosby.
[2] Barrow, H.M., McGee, R. & Trischler, K.A.(1989) Practical measurement in physical education and sport (4th ed.).
Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger.
[3] Safrit, M. J. & Wood, T. M. (1989) Measurement concepts in physical education and exercise science. Champain,
IL.: Human Kinetics.
[4] Thomas, J. R. & Nelson, J. K. (1990) "Research methods in physical activity". Champain, IL.: Human Kinetics.

NOTA: O texto com a iconografia está no anexo.

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