The purpose was to develop a valid and reliable battery of quad rugby skill tests. Participants were 65 adult, male, quad rugby athletes. Content validity was established in two modified Delphi rounds by a panel of international experts. For concurrent validity, Spearman rho correlations between coaches’ rankings of players’ skills and scores ranged from .63 to .98 for the total battery. For construct validity, principal factor analysis with oblique rotation revealed two factors. Intraclass reliability coefficients ranged from .94 to .99. The battery includes five tests: maneuverability with the ball, pass for accuracy, picking, sprinting, and pass for distance.
The purpose of the study was to examine the offensive game efficiency of elite wheelchair rugby players with regard to their International Wheelchair Rugby Federation (IWRF) classification. Male athletes (105) representing 12 European nations competing at the 2005 European Wheelchair Rugby Championships took part in this study. The primary recording instrument was the Game Efficiency Sheet (GES), an instrument designed to objectively record parameters of wheelchair rugby efficiency such as points scored, steals, turnovers, balls caught (%), and balls passed (%). Kruskal-Wallis between groups analyses identified significant differences among the lower classification groups (0.5–2.0) and between the lower and higher classification (2.5–3.5) groups. Further research is needed in identifying game efficiency differences in higher class groups.
The purpose of the study was to examine the sport-specific performance of wheelchair rugby players with regard to their classification. A group of 30 male athletes from the Polish Wheelchair Rugby League participated in the study. The seven International Wheelchair Rugby Federation classes were collapsed into four groups. Standardized measures of aerobic, anaerobic, and skill performance were examined to identify performance differences among the four groups. Major findings were that most differences were between Group I players and all others and that anaerobic performance was the most sensitive to classification differences. Another important finding was that for all other groups, with one exception, adjacent groups did not differ in anaerobic, aerobic, and sport-specific skill performance. The results of this study demonstrate the need to investigate other performance measures that will help in evaluating the current wheelchair rugby classification system.
The factor structure of the Sport Orientation Questionnaire with three factors of competitiveness, win orientation, and goal orientation was examined in a sample of 243 wheelchair athletes from the USA. Based on sample-specific validity evidence theory, it was hypothesized that the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses would yield evidence on validity for wheelchair athletes who were different from able-bodied athletes. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the hypothesis with a clear fourth and a questionable fifth factor. A confirmatory factor analysis did not adequately explain the new five-factor model. The new emerging fourth and fifth factors separated the competitiveness element of the questionnaire in 'self-referenced' and 'other-referenced' elements of competitiveness. Results are discussed in terms of demographic characteristics of the sample of wheelchair athletes.
The results may confirm the lack of a need for additional classification in sledge hockey beyond minimum eligibility or may enhance the argument that a classification system may be needed because the lower functioning disabilities are not being represented in the sport.
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