Agility has been defined as rapid whole body movement with change of speed and/or direction in response to stimulus. Agility performance is affected by cognitive, physical and technical qualities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of physical and cognitive qualities to football-specific agility performance in players of different ages. 38 male junior football player volunteers were divided to three groups, U11 (n=14), U15 (n=12) and U19 (n=12). Football-specific agility performance with and without ball was tested by using video stimulus and general agility performance by using light stimulus. Eye tracker was used to measure participant`s visual searching strategy during football-specific tests. In addition, 10 meters sprint speed, change of direction ability, reaction time, isometric maximal force of leg extensors, countermovement and drop jump heights were measured. In football-specific video stimulus agility tests, with and without ball, U11 group was significantly slower (p<0.05) than U15 and U19 groups. There were no major differences in visual searching strategies between groups, but U11 had significantly more (p<0.05) gaze transitions compared to U15. In light stimulus agility test and in all physical qualities tests U11 group performed significantly (p<0.05) weaker than U15 and U19. U19 performed significantly (p<0.05) better than U15 only in 10 meter sprint speed test. Correlations between results of physical tests and football-specific agility tests were weak-moderate (r=0.020-0.635) and with general agility test correlations were weak-strong (r=0.026-0.749). The correlations were slightly higher in U11 than U15 and U19. Agility performance in response to general and sport-specific stimuli improve significantly from U11 to U15 but improvements in agility and other physical abilities were smaller from U15 to U19. According to the present findings, measured physical qualities play minor role in agility performance, especially after puberty, which underline the role of cognitive and technical qualities to determine agility performance. Contact: Eero Savolainen, Juha P Ahtiainen: Neuromuscular Research Center, Faculty of sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä; Tomi Vänttinen: Research Institute for Olympic Sports, Jyväskylä, Finland
© Copyright 2020 19th International Symposium "Modern Science and Practice for Strength and Endurance Training" October 10-12, 2018. Veröffentlicht von Neuromuscular Research Center and Biology of Physical Activity, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.