Introduction: Core stability plays major role in athletic performance and injury prevention. Athletes who have a poor core stability are more susceptible to sustain injury than other athletes. There are a plethora of tests that assess core stability, many of which have a vague or unclear scoring system and interpretation of tests results is difficult. Therefore, this study aims to develop the double leg lowering test scoring system and establish the intra-rater reliability of adapted method.
Methodology: Double leg lowering test was considered appropriate for athletes due to being dynamic and difficulty in its implementation. In this test, the athlete while lying on his back, legs stretched perpendicular to the body, starts to bring down the two legs. The angle between the legs and the horizontal line at the moment the athlete waist is removed from the ground recorded as an athlete score. The lower angle between the legs with the horizontal line, the higher the athlete's core stability. For better interpretation of test results, from start to finish of the test divided into four equal distance. From the point the athlete begins to bring down the legs to the ground were considered 80 degrees (with respect to the flexibility of the posterior thigh and leg). So evaluation was performed as excellent (0 to 20 degrees), good (20 to 40 degrees), moderate (40 to 60 degrees) and poor (60 to 80 degrees). Goniometer was used to measure the angle of the limb to the ground. 15 athletes of Tehran University were tested during two sessions, with an interval of one day. The data were analyzed to assess the intra-rater reliability.
Results: recorded scores during test had an excellent test-retest correlation (r=0.81).
Discussion: When the results of double leg lowering test reported as quadrivalent (excellent, good, moderate and poor), it has high reliability and interpretation of the results in this way is easier for coaches.