Impact of plyometric sessions on agility for youth soccer players

Abstract

Soccer is the most popular game in the world. It combines several elements and abilities. Agility is one of the most important abilities to perform well. The study aimed to investigates impact of some plyometric sessions on developing agility for youth soccer players. Twenty-eight soccer youth players (age, 15 ± 0.2 years) were divided randomly into two groups an experimental group and a control group. Both groups were tested pre-test by Illinois agility test, and the experimental group has got their training for four weeks in the pre-competition period by two sessions per week, while the control group has kept their own training. The post-test was applied after four weeks and it showed significant results between pre and post-test for the Illinois agility test which showed 4% of improvement in the experimental group (p=0.11), The control group showed 1.5% of agility improvement (p=0.34). The results showed that 4 weeks of plyometric training in a pre-competition period does not highly improve agility for youth soccer players for the sport requires agility continuously by changing body positions each moment of play, Researchers recommend giving agility more sessions during the preparation period.