INTRODUCTION: The assessment of agility performance is a priority for soccer academy coaches since it fosters training optimization and talent identification. The majority of agility tests used in soccer players evaluation accounts for the physical aspect of agility only. Despite their wide use, these tests do not assess soccer-specific performances. Recently, the introduction of soccer-specific motor coordinative (SSMC) elements e.g., the capacity to manage a ball while sprinting, has been claimed to improve tests sensitivity for performance and maturation. The aim of the present study was to compare the outcomes of a generic agility test with a modified version including soccer-specific skills in a cohort of young elite soccer players. METHODS: One-hundred forty elite male academy soccer players (U6, n=12; U8, n=28; U10, n=25; U12, n=24; U14, n=24; U16, n=27) participated in the study. Each player performed two tests: standard Illinois Agility Test (IAT) and Modified Illinois Agility test with ball (IATm). All tests were performed after pre-season training, during one regular training session for each category. The execution time for each test was recorded by a single operator through a handled digital stopwatch to the nearest 0.01s. The execution time for each player in each test was averaged among the three trials. The "SSMC gap" was defined as the difference between IATm and IAT execution time. IAT and IATm times were compared through the Repeated Measures ANOVA. RESULTS: The execution time of IAT and IATm decreased with players` category (F(5,134)=113.4, ?²p=0.81, p<0.001), showing performance improvement. A substantial time decrease was noted up to 10 years old, while a lower decrease was found from U10 category on. The SSMC gap also decreased from 25.0 ± 4.9s (U6) to 4.6 ± 1.2s (U16). The SSMC gap for U6 and U8 was significantly higher than the other categories (p<0.001, large effect). From U10 category on, no differences in SSMC gap were found (post-hoc p-value p<0.05, Cohen`s d<1.94). CONCLUSION: The difference between IAT and IATm outcomes (SSMC gap) effectively tracked players` maturation and agility performance. The SSMC gap and SSMCI could provide valuable insights regarding players` skills. Soccer academy coaches should consider the combined use of generic and soccer-specific tests to optimize agility performance assessment at an early age.
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