Movement is the result of a complex interaction between the individual, environment, and the task they are engaged with. Health professionals recognize the importance of understanding the construct of movement and are constantly seeking innovative ways to objectively assess and breakdown movement patterns into more manageable parts. Complex motor patterns have been studied by health professional in an attempt to better serve their patients/clients in regards to their functional activities. The selective funtional movement assessment is one tool that has been growing in popularity due to its ability to discriminate functional and dysfunctional movement patterns in the context of pain. However, little research has been conducted to understand the reliability and validity of the tool. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the use of the Selective Functional Movement Assessment, along with the Oswentry Disability Index and the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia on NCAA division II collegiate athletes who have a recent history of low back pain. 73 Division II collegiate men and women athletes were purposefully selected and placed into two groups. All participants complete the TSK and ODI questionnaires as well as the SFMA. Poor to excellent reliability was established for intra- and inter- rater reliability for both composite and categorical data from the SFMA with the upper extremity pattern two being the most predictive category of someone with low back pain. A small correlation was found between the SFMA and TSK and a moderate correlation was found between the SFMA and ODI. In conclusion, this study is consistent with previous research indicating the SFMA is reliable and valid. However, future research is needed to address reliability and validity on different populations and settings.
