Comparison of Sprint Agility Performance in Recreationally Trained Soccer and Basketball Players

Abstract

Sprint speed and the ability to change directions are key attributes needed in a variety of sports. Basketball and soccer players may benefit from knowing where to focus training to help improve optimal performance. PURPOSE: Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to determine the differences in recreationally trained soccer and basketball players on sprint agility performance. METHODS: Nine recreationally trained soccer and basketball players (age 23.55 ±2.06yrs, height 172.09 ±4.81cm, weight 74.23 ±7.35kg) volunteered to participate in one familiarization session and one testing session, separated by at least 24hrs each. Session one acted as a familiarization day, where the participants performed the testing day protocol. On session two, testing day, participants performed a dynamic warm-up. Following the warm-up, participants performed the pro-agility shuttle test, which included a total of 20yd sprints (four, 5yd splits), changing directions twice throughout the test. Three trials were collected with 2min rest between each trial and average and maximum reaction time, time splits, total time, reaction velocity, split time velocity, and total velocity was measured for each trial. A 2x1 (group by time) one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted for each variable to determine differences between soccer and basketball players. RESULTS: No significant (p>0.05) difference were found between basketball and soccer players in all variables. Since no group differences were found, groups were collapsed and a repeated measures ANOVA was conducted on average and maximum time and velocity between all four split times. Significant (p<0.05) differences were found for time split 3 and all other time splits for average and maximum velocity. No significant (p>0.05) differences were found between all split times. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that recreationally trained basketball and soccer players did not perform the pro-agility shuttle differently. These results may be attributed to the lack of sport specific training in these recreationally trained individuals. Further research is needed to investigate differences in collegiate athletes who train more sport specifically.