How This Calculator Works

This calculator scores the Davies Test — more formally the Closed Kinetic Chain Upper Extremity Stability Test (CKCUEST). It's a functional measure of how well your shoulders, arms, and trunk work together to control your bodyweight: from a push-up position, you alternately reach one hand across to touch the other and back, as many times as you can in 15 seconds. You enter your touch count, height, and body mass, and the calculator returns the three scores the test is built around, then shows how your touch count compares with published reference values.

One thing to keep in mind throughout: for this test, a higher number is better. More controlled touches in 15 seconds means better upper-body stability, strength-endurance, and neuromuscular control.

Step 1: Enter Your Details

The calculator needs three inputs, with a metric / imperial switch at the top that changes the units for height and mass:

• Average Touches (15 s) — the number of hand touches you completed, ideally the average of three trialsGoldbeck and Davies recommend averaging three maximal 15-second trials. Averaging smooths out the trial-to-trial variation typical of a fatiguing, fast effort.. This is a count, so it's the same in both unit systems.
• Height (cm or in) — used for the normalized score.
• Body Mass (kg or lb) — used for the power score.

The unit switch only changes how you enter height and mass; the scores themselves are reported in their standard published forms regardless of which system you pick.

The Test Protocol

For your score to mean anything against the reference values, the test has to be performed the standard way:

• Setup: Place two strips of tape on the floor, parallel, with their inner edges 91.4 cm (36 inches) apart.
• Start position: Take a push-up position with one hand on each tape line, body straight, shoulders stacked over your hands.
• The action: On "go," lift one hand, reach across to touch the back of the other hand, then return it to its line; then do the same with the other hand. Keep alternating as fast as you can control.
• Count: Each hand touch counts as one. Record the total touches in 15 seconds.
• Trials: Warm up, take a practice run, then record several trials and use the average of three.

A note on the position: some protocols allow a modified (knees-down) startA knees-down version is sometimes used so the test is accessible to people who can't hold a full push-up position. It changes the difficulty, so scores from the two versions aren't directly comparable — keep to one version. for those who can't hold a full push-up. It makes the test more accessible but changes the score, so pick one version and stay with it.

The Three Scores

This is where the Davies Test is on firm ground. All three of its scores are calculated directly from your inputs — there's nothing estimated or modelled about them:

• Touch score — your average number of touches in 15 seconds. The raw, headline result.
• Normalized score — touches divided by your height in metres. This exists for a reason: the hand spacing is fixed at 36 inches for everyone, which quietly favours longer armsWith a fixed gap, a taller, longer-armed person covers proportionally less distance per touch than a shorter person, so they can rack up more touches. Dividing by height partly levels that out., so dividing by height makes scores fairer to compare between people of different sizes.
• Power score — a bodyweight-adjusted index, since moving a heavier body is harder work:

The normalized and power scores were introduced by Goldbeck and Davies precisely to make the raw touch count fairer across different body sizes. They are most useful for comparing people; for tracking one person over time, the raw touch count is usually enough.

Why There Is No Tier Rating

Most tests on this platform sort your result into five tiers from Low to Elite. The Davies Test deliberately doesn't, and that's an honesty decision rather than an oversight.

There simply is no published five-band rating scale for this test, the way there is for some others. It was designed as a clinical and sports-rehab tool, and the literature interprets it by comparison to reference values and limb symmetryIn clinical use the result is read against a matched reference group, against the person's own previous scores, and by comparing how the left-leading and right-leading touches stack up — not against a fixed Excellent-to-Poor scale., not by a fixed Excellent-to-Poor scale. On top of that, the published averages swing widely with the population and the exact protocol — reported means run roughly from the low teens to about 30 touches, with athletic groups sitting near the top. Inventing tidy tier boundaries on top of numbers that scattered would produce a confident-looking verdict that the evidence doesn't support, so the calculator reports the exact scores and shows where your touch count sits within that published reference range instead.

For the same reasons, there is no age or sex grading and no population distribution curve. Sex differences have been reported but across inconsistent protocols, and there is no agreed lifespan reference grid for the standard test — so rather than model curves from thin dataBuilding per-age thresholds or a bell curve from fragmented, protocol-mismatched studies would imply a precision that isn't there. This platform names the gap instead of filling it with guesses., the calculator names the gap and stays with what's measured.

How to Read the Reference Scale

The reference panel plots your touch score on a simple scale, with a shaded band marking the typical reported range (around 11–30 touches) and a tick at an athletic reference mean (NCAA American football players averaged about 27.3). Your marker shows where you land.

Read it as orientation, not a grade. Because the band is so wide and population-dependent, the most useful comparison is against a group like you — your sport, your activity level, your age — rather than against athletes by default.

How to Interpret Your Result Properly

The two readings the research actually supports are both more useful than a single number:

• Change over time. Retest under identical conditions. A difference of about 3 touches or moreStudies of the test's measurement error suggest roughly three touches is the smallest change that likely reflects a real difference rather than normal trial-to-trial noise. is generally needed before you can call it a real change rather than noise — this is what makes the test genuinely useful for tracking rehab or training progress.
• Left/right symmetry. In clinical use, a meaningful gap between your left-leading and right-leading performance can flag a side-to-side deficit worth looking into, especially when returning from a shoulder injury.

What This Test Measures

The Davies Test is best understood as a closed-chain upper-body stability and endurance measure. "Closed chain" means your hands stay fixed on the ground bearing load, so the test challenges the shoulder girdle, the muscles that stabilise the shoulder blade, the trunk and core that keep your body straight, and the coordination to switch sides quickly under that load. It draws on coordination, but it is not a pure coordination test — strength-endurance and stability dominate.

Its strengths are that it's quick, cheap, needs only tape and a stopwatch, and is reliableReported test-retest reliability is generally good to excellent (intraclass correlation roughly 0.82–0.97 across studies), which is what makes it useful for tracking change. enough to track progress. It's widely used in shoulder rehabilitation and return-to-sport decisions for overhead athletes. Its main weakness is the fixed hand spacing, which favours longer-armed people — the reason the normalized and power scores exist, and the reason a height-adjusted "modified" version of the test was later developed.

Data Sources and Methodology

The methods in this calculator come from the test's primary literature:

• Goldbeck, T.G., & Davies, G.J. (2000). Test-retest reliability of the closed kinetic chain upper extremity stability test. Journal of Sport Rehabilitation, 9(1), 35–46 — the original protocol (hands 91.4 cm apart, 15 seconds, average of three trials) and the three scores: touches, normalized (touches ÷ height), and power (0.68 × mass × touches ÷ 15).
• Tucci, H.T., et al. (2014). Closed Kinetic Chain Upper Extremity Stability Test: a reliability study. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 15 — reliability and the change-over-time guidance (roughly three touches needed for a real change).
• Roush, J.R., et al. (2007) and subsequent reference-value studies (including NCAA collegiate athletes) — the population reference values shown on the comparison scale.

A note on scope: the three scores are exact calculations; the comparison is against published reference values for the standard 36-inch protocol. No tier rating, age or sex grading, or population distribution is modelled, because none is established for this protocol — where the data runs out, the calculator stops rather than estimating past it. A height-normalized modified version (mCKCUEST) exists and has its own percentile data, but it uses a different hand spacing and isn't interchangeable with the standard test scored here.

Limitations and Important Caveats

This calculator scores a physical test and contextualises it; it is not a clinical assessment. Several factors affect how precisely it reflects your true upper-body function:

• Practice and fatigue. Scores improve with familiarity, and a fast 15-second effort fatigues quickly. Warm up, take a practice trial, and average three recorded trials.
• Arm-length bias. The fixed 36-inch spacing favours longer-armed people. Use the normalized score when comparing between individuals of different sizes.
• Trunk and shoulder demand. Holding the position requires real core and shoulder stability; people who can't hold a stable push-up position won't get a representative score, and the test isn't suitable for everyone.
• Population-specific references. Reported averages vary widely (~11–30 touches). Compare yourself to a matched group, not to elite athletes by default.
• No graded standard. There is no validated five-tier or age/sex-graded scale, so the result is best read as a baseline to improve on, not a verdict.
• Setup must match. Hand spacing, the push-up versus knees-down position, and the 15-second window all change the score. Keep them identical between tests.
• One facet of function. It captures closed-chain upper-body stability and endurance, not overhead mobility, throwing power, or pure reaction or coordination.

Disclaimer:
This calculator provides scores and reference context based on published data. Real upper-body function depends on training, injury history, body proportions, and individual variation. The Davies Test is physically demanding and loads the shoulders, wrists, elbows, and trunk under bodyweight; warm up first and stop immediately if you feel pain. Use caution or seek guidance if you have shoulder instability or pain, a recent injury to the upper limb or back, low bone density or fracture risk, or limited trunk strength. This tool is for general informational purposes only and is not a clinical assessment, nor medical, fitness, or rehabilitation advice. Consult a qualified healthcare provider before beginning a new exercise or testing program, particularly when returning from injury.