Mor-Christian General Soccer Ability Skill Test Battery

Introduction

Soccer is one of the popular sports in the world, as there is a very large number of people that play football at different levels. According to a survey conducted by FIFA published in 2008, over 300 million people from more than 200 countries regularly play football. As a result, we can see that effective skill tests are vitally important for placement, grading, diagnosis in various levels, since sport skill test is an instrument that elicits an observable respone which provides information about motor skill used in a sport.

Mor-Christian General Soccer Ability Skill Test Battery(Mor & Christian, 1979) is one of the soccer tests that evauate passing, dribbling and shooting ability in soccer. Here, the content of the tests will be discussed and evaluated in the following part. On the contrary, there are the suggestions on improving the quality of the test that instructors not only administer the tests smoothly, but also test the subjects’ ability widely.

a)    Mor-Christian Soccer Dribbling Test

( Validity-0.73 , Reability-0.80 )

There are many good criteria in this test, including short period of time for administering, equipments, human resource, availability of venue and objectives. In this test, there is a short period of time, around 2 minutes for each subjects. Besides, few human resources and equipment are required, so that the test is easy for setting and administer. But large area is oocupied by the circular path in this test, some testing area may not provide sufficient area to carry out various tests at the same time. Actually, it is good for students that three trials are allowed in this dribbling test, as the learning effect is a key factor to reduce the relibility, so trials can help the subjects to familiarize the testing procedures. Moreover, clockwise and conterclockwise direction are required to finish that the test is suitable for real situation, soccer need to dribble in all direction continually in the match, not only in their dominant direction. However, there are some suggestions in this test. The first one is the distance between cones. In the outline of setting, there is 5 yds among the cones within the path, but too long distance may cause the reduction of validity and reliability. Dribbling refers to the maneuvering of a ball around a defender through short skillful taps or kicks with either the legs, excess time is allowed for dribblers to co-ordinate their body and it is easy to dribble all the cones if there are too long distance among the cones. In fact, players in the competition often execute dribbling in the short distance from the defenders, so the distance is suggested to reduce from 5 yds to 3.5 or 4 yds, and it can let the subjects in dribbling test as well as real situation. The second suggestion is that  subjects’ liner-dribbling ability can be tested, not only in circulat direction. Since players also face the challenges face to face in the match, so the liner-dribbling part is suggested to follow the circular dribbling, this combination can fit in real situation and increase the validity of the test.

b)    Mor-Christian Soccer Shooting Test

( Validity-0.78 , Reability-0.96 )

This shooting test can verify the shooting ability exactly, especially for the soccer attackers, as it can test the object shooting accuracy. However, shooting power is not tested and scoring scheme has a contridiction. Shooting ability is mainly consist of accuracy, power and speed, and the speed is a key factor to determine the quality and the chance of scoring, but this test just test subject’s shooting accuracy only. Also, the scoring scheme has conflict that the score is counted even subjects shoot at the other corner which is not they claimed, since there is a large difference in shooting two opposite concer, so the instruction of scoring scheme is not clear and unintelligible.

Actually, there are many reasons that it is quite difficult to administer this shootiing test. First of all, time consuming is factor that every subject consume much time to finish all of the trials, around five to six minutes, so an inconvenience may be caused. Second is about the availability of venue, because not all of the testing area contain a standard goal or sufficient area for setting, so this test is limited by small venue. Thirdly, many equipments are required for setting this test when it compares with another two tests, so it increases the difficulty in setting.

c)     Mor-Christian Soccer Passing Test

( Validity-0.91 , Reability-0.98 )

This passing test has the highest validity and reability in these three tests, it prove that it has  good criteria for a sport skill test, however, it also has some drawbacks.

There are few equipments in this test like the dribbling test metioned before, so instructors can prepare the test easily. Nevertheless, subjects consume a lot of time to finish all of the passing tests in different positions when it compares with other two soccer tests , around 4 minutes for each subject. Furthermore, it requires many human resources to keep the fluency of the test. For the objectives, the test is good for subjects’ passing abiliy, since the proper distance and several passing direction in the test are essential for a soccer match and it can explain why there are the high validity and reability. On the other hand, the test result may not reflect actual ability. It is because players will not pass the ball on the fixed points like this passing test if they play in the match. Players need to run and then pass the ball continually, so this passing test is not fit to test subjects’ actual passing ability. Moreover, ability of long pass is not involved in the test, so long pass testing is suggested to administer, as long pass is an important part in soccer, it is used in defenders and side attackers normally.

Conclusion

are the basic skills in soccer, it is necessary to test players’ ability of these aspect. Mor-Christian General Soccer Ability Skill Test Battery is one the the good tests to evaluate although there are some suggestions for improvement. In fact, not only these three aspect, many skills are also required for a good soccer player. For instance, agility and header are two of the important skills in soccer, perhaps it is better that various parts are included beside dribbling, passing and shooting and test the subject comprehensively.