Interrater And Intrarater Reliability Of The Standard Assessment Of Tackling Technique (SATT) On Secondary School Football Athletes

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Eighteen years after Guskiewicz et al. (2000) began studying sport related concussion in college and high school football players, head and spine injuries remain a very serious concern for the sport. An upward trend in serious catastrophic brain and spinal cord injuries still exists (Meehan and Landry, 2015), despite greater awareness of signs and symptoms, improved injury evaluation, more accurate symptom assessment, cautious return to play decisions, better helmet technology, new tackling styles, updated coach education, and rule changes limiting contact in practice (Yang et al., 2017). A consistent, cost effective method to evaluate and screen unsafe tackling behaviors has yet to be established. The Standard Assessment of Tackling Technique (SATT) is an observational tool designed to score movement proficiency on five critical elements of an American football tackle. Each element is rated on a four step, ordinal scale from zero - did not occur to three - performed with proficiency. PURPOSE: of this study was to evaluate interrater and intrarater reliability of the SATT. METHODS:Fifteen healthy subjects were videotaped while performing a tackle proficiency assessment (TPA) drill on a square blocking dummy. Twelve players (n=12) completed all three TPA sessions spaced 7 days apart, three players did not complete all trials and their data was removed. A total of 36 videos were independently scored by two, trained raters. Training required completion of a forty-five-minute session with explanation of the scoring rubric and scoring sample videos until 80% scoring agreement was obtained. RESULTS: Interrater reliability was good for sessions 1 (ICC = 0.801; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.446-0.938) and 2 (ICC = 0.856; 95% CI: 0.575-0.956) and moderate for session 3 (ICC = 0.602; 95% CI: 0.076-0.867). The individual SATT components showed Arm Rip was the least reliable component (ICC = 0.40; 95% CI: 0.31-0.51) and leg drive was the most reliable component (ICC = 0.95; 95% CI: 0.92-0.97). Intrarater reliability was moderate to good for both raters (ICC = 0.57 - 0.79). CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that the SATT can be independently scored by two raters, following a 45 minute training session and more experienced raters demonstrate increased intrarater reliability.