FMS PREDICTIVE VALIDITY & STABILITY: CRITERION (76 BASKETBALL ATHLETES) & TEST-RETEST (60 EXERCISE PARTICIPANTS)
Rui He, WeiBo Shang, Chen Zhao, Junjie Zheng, RongJin He, Fanghao Li · World Journal of Sport Research · 2026
Purpose: . The present study investigated predictive validity of the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) in predicting basketball performance and its test-retest reliability and intervention sensitivity.
Methods: . The first study comprised of 76 basketball athletes who played the national-level 1 and above; the correlation between the total score of FMS and four performance indicators was examined and equivalence-tested. The second study randomized 60 exercise subjects (mean age = 20.8 years, SD = 1.8 years) into an intervention group (corrective education and exercises) or a control group with measurements taken one week apart and the assessors blinded.
Results: . The
results indicated that Study 1: all correlations between FMS and performance were insignificant (|r| < 0.06; equivalence was established). Study 2: controls also had a very high reliability (r = 0.91, ICC = 0.90, change -0.1 ± 1.3, 93% within 2 points); the intervention group had a much lower correlation (r = 0.47 compared with r = 0.91, p < .001) and more variance in changes (SD = 2.9 compared with SD = 1.3, p < .001), and individual changes ranged between -5 and +6.
Conclusion: . FMS is not predictive of the basketball performance and is associated with low stability in the conditions of short intervention. The corrective education can change the meaning of scoring, which will compromise test-retest reliability. It is recommended that practitioners do not use FMS as the only decision-making or evaluation measure.