Analysis of Pushing Forces During the Water Polo Eggbeater: Reliability and Validity of a Novel Approach

Water polo players benefit from greater odds of success when maintaining their tactical position against their opponents. This study evaluated the reliability and validity of a water-based resistance test to replicate this skill.Thirty-three water polo players participated in this study (19 males and 14 females, 14 from senior and 19 from junior national teams). Data were collected during two regular training sessions, separated by one week, using a load cell to instrument a weight stack resistance setup on the pool deck. Performance parameters such as mean force, maximum force, mean peak force and total impulse were defined with custom Python scripts. Test-retest reliability was assessed using intra-class correlations (ICC3,1). Group comparisons were explored between male and female players. Level of significance was set at p < 0.05. The reliability findings were high to very high for the and total impulse (ICC 0.85 - 0.93, p < 0.01). Group comparisons showed significantly greater values in male players for these variables (p < 0.01, ES = 1.05 - 9.36) with large to very large effect testing apparatus presented in this study can readily be replicated group of water polo players.