Sport-specific assessment for change of direction ability in taekwondo: a brief review with guidelines for testing

In taekwondo combat, agility is essential for rapid movement and maintaining the match pace, as well as for executing unilateral technical actions swiftly in multidirectional planes. Furthermore, it is also required to dodge and block opponents’ repeated attacks and to handle clinch situations and close-quarters combat effectively. This brief review aims to present the sport-specific tests available in the current literature for the change of direction (COD) assessments in taekwondo, summarizing and analyzing the development and validation process of each test. This narrative review was conducted in accordance with the SANRA checklist. A literature search of PubMed/MEDLINE, Google Scholar and Scopus was performed for research articles, from September 2017 to February 2026. The inclusion criteria were studies focusing on taekwondo athletes of any competitive level, age category, and nationality; evaluating the COD through sport-specific testing; reporting at least one aspect of the validity, reliability, or sensitivity of the test; or providing a practical application of the test protocol. A total of 113 records were identified across databases. After duplication, screening, and full-text assessment, 26 articles focused on the specific assessment of COD in taekwondo from three currently available tests (i.e., the Taekwondo-Specific Agility Test, the Taekwondo-Specific Aerobic-Anaerobic-Agility test, and the Taekwondo Specific Change-of-Direction Speed Test) were included in the results. These tests incorporate greater sport-specificity and may provide greater ecological relevance than general tests, as they mimic the typical movements and technical actions of the match. However, the distinct methodological and measurement characteristics of each test must be considered in practical use. Future research should explore further aspects of validity (such as face, convergent and predictive validity), as well as clarify the reliability (i.e., test-retest and/or intra-/inter-rater) and sensitivity of these tests, and develop classification tables. Practitioners can use the available tests to monitor the acute and chronic effects of training protocols on sport-specific COD performance, the relationship between the latter and other fundamental fitness components, or to classify athletes.