09/02/2026
Student Research Spotlight: James Libby
The Citadel Department of Health and Human Performance is proud to recognize James Libby, an Exercise Science student who was awarded a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) grant to conduct research this past summer.
Working alongside HHP faculty Dr. Ryan Sacko and Dr. Bryan Terlizzi, Libby completed The TOSS-UP Study, a research project examining how we assess one of the most fundamental components of motor competence: the ability to throw and catch effectively.
Throwing and catching assessments are widely used in physical education, sport, and motor development research, but they can differ substantially in the time, equipment, space, and skill demands required for testing. James's project asked whether a practical field-based assessment could provide meaningful information about object-control performance while remaining efficient enough for use in real-world settings.
The study included 40 college-aged adults who completed maximal throwing-velocity testing along with four different throwing and catching assessments: the Throw Catch Assessment (TCA), Finnish Throwing Test, KTK3+ eye-hand coordination assessment, and an MABC-style throwing and catching task.
The results provided an interesting picture. All four assessments were significantly related to maximal throwing velocity, with particularly strong relationships observed for the Finnish test, KTK3+, and TCA. The Finnish test demonstrated the strongest overall relationship with maximal throwing speed, while the TCA also provided significant independent information even after the other assessments were considered simultaneously.
That finding is particularly important from an applied perspective. The TCA requires minimal equipment, space, setup, and testing time while integrating throwing and catching into a continuous task. James's work suggests that the TCA may provide a valuable balance between scientific measurement and practical field-based assessment, particularly when researchers and practitioners need to assess larger groups efficiently.
For Libby, the SURE experience provided an opportunity to participate in the full research process—from administering standardized assessments and collecting human-performance data to statistical analysis, interpretation, and scientific presentation.
James plans to continue developing this work while pursuing his degree in Exercise Science in The Citadel's Department of Health and Human Performance, with opportunities to extend the TOSS-UP Study into additional populations and further investigate how throwing and catching competence can be measured in practical settings.
Undergraduate research experiences like SURE allow students to move beyond learning about research and begin doing research that can contribute to their field.
Congratulations, James, on an outstanding summer of research!
