Assessing maximum oxygen uptake through a motor-cognitive reactive agility test in team ball sports athletes

Background: Conventional laboratory and field tests often underestimate VO2max and fail to reflect the reactive agility, multidirectional demands of team ball sports. This study examined whether a motor-cognitive Reactive Agility (RA) Test can elicit a true VO2max response and serve as a sport-specific alternative for assessing VO2max in team sport athletes.

Method: Fifty-three team ball sports athletes performed an exhaustive incremental treadmill test and a motor-cognitive RA Test. The RA Test was performed on the SKILLCOURT and contained four all-out reactive agility runs of 150 m with an intermittent break of 30 s. VO2max was determined in both tests using a portable gas analyzer. Dependent t-tests, Blant-Altman analysis, concordance correlation coefficient (CCC), intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and correlation analyses were performed.

Results: The mean difference in VO2max between the tests was 0.25 mL × kg−1 × min−1 (0.5%, p = 0.55) with upper and lower 95% limits of agreement at 6.02 (11%) and −5.53 (10%) mL × kg−1 × min−1, respectively. CCC (pc = 0.94), ICC (0.943) and correlation analysis (r = 0.94) revealed a strong agreement and relation between VO2max in the treadmill and RA Test.
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Conclusion: The RA Test reliably elicits a true VO2max response and offers a valid and more sport-specific option when compared to laboratory treadmill assessment for measuring VO2max in team ball sport athletes.