ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of speed, agility and quickness (SAQ) training on acceleration (5 and 20 m), change of direction speed (CODS) and reactive agility in preadolescent soccer players. Thirty-five participants (age = 10.57 ± 0.26, body mass = 36.78 ± 5.34 kg, body height = 1.42 ± 0.05 m), randomly assigned to experimental (EG, n = 20) and control groups (CG, n = 15), completed a 12-week training intervention, 2 day/week. A significant interaction was found in 5-m sprint (P < 0.05, part η2 = 0.117) and reactive agility (P < 0.01, part η2 = 0.248) between EG and CG. In both groups, 20-m sprint time improved significantly (P < 0.05, effect size = 0.3–0.4) while performance on CODS remained unchanged after 12 weeks. These findings indicated that SAQ training could positively affect cognitive skills and initial sprint acceleration through the middle childhood, offering useful guidance to soccer coaches.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Luca Rimoldi (M.Sc.) for his technical support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.