Establishing the Reliability of a Functional Performance Test Battery that Incorporates the QASLS Tool in Pre-Elite Female Field Hockey Players

Pre-elite female field hockey players experience a high incidence of lower-extremity injury, highlighting the need for practical and reliable screening tools. A dual assessment approach that combines functional performance tests (FPT) with observational movement quality scoring, such as the Qualitative Assessment of Single Leg Loading (QASLS), may offer valuable insight; however, its reliability in this population requires further investigation. This study aimed to (1) evaluate the test–retest re-liability of an FPT battery incorporating QASLS in pre elite female field hockey players, (2) identify the most reliable performance metric for QASLS application, (3) determine intra and inter rater reliability of QASLS scoring using still images, and (4) assess the practicability of dual assessment in youth team sport settings. Fifteen U18 female field hockey players completed an FPT battery—Anterior Reach, Single Hop for Distance, Side Hop, and Drop Vertical Jump Landing—on two occasions, 28 days apart. Three experienced raters independently scored QASLS for each test. All FPT measures demonstrated good to excellent test-retest reliability (ICC₂,₁ = 0.63–0.90). Intra-rater agreement for composite QASLS scores was good to excellent (ICC₂,₁ = 0.79–0.90), with high agreement across individual components. Inter-rater agreement varied by test, ranging from moderate to near-perfect. These findings indicate that combining FPT with QASLS offers a sufficiently reliable dual assessment method to inform targeted injury prevention strategies in pre-elite female athletes.