Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Semester of Degree Completion
1982
Thesis Director
William F. Buckellew
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to construct and validate an overhand passing test for experienced volleyball players. The test designed in this study required each player to pass to two different targets, 90 degrees from each other.
The two targets were three feet from the junction of two unobstructed walls. On each wall a horizontal line was taped three feet long and ten feet above the floor. At the end of each horizontal line, a vertical line was taped, extending three feet above the ten foot line and perpendicular to it.
Sixty-three high school girls at Stewardson-Strasburg High School, Stewardson, Illinois, were tested. All had experience in overhand passing.
The test consisted of the number of overhand passes alternated between the two wall targets in 30 seconds. The player could begin in front of either target and begin by tossing the ball to herself and then overhand passing to the target. To score the second pass had to be made into the opposite wall target. If the ball was dropped, the player put it back into play with a self-toss. Scoring resumed with the second wall pass.
If the ball did not contact the target or any of its boundary lines during a succession of passes, the player could continue to volley but that contact was not counted in the score.
Each student took three test trials. The highest reliability coefficient, .87, determined by the Pearson product-moment method of correlation, resulted between the scores of trial two and trial three. This indicated that three test trials should be administered.
To determine the validity of the test, three high school coaches were asked to judge the players' overhand passing skill. The judges rated each player's setting skill from a scale of one to ten points.
The final rating for each player was the total of the three judges' ratings. These ratings were correlated with several different methods of scoring the test, using the Pearson product-moment method of correlation.
The validity coefficient of the best score from all three trials was .8274. Besides having a high validity, taking the best of three trials was the easiest method of scoring the test.
The research established the two wall test as valid and reliable. The study concluded that using the highest score of three trials was a valid and simple method of scoring the test.
Recommended Citation
Harner, Jarielle L., "An Overhand Passing Test for Girls Volleyball" (1982). Masters Theses. 2956.
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/2956
