Relationship between sprint, jump, dynamic balance with the change of direction on young soccer players' performance

The aim of the present paper was to determine the relationship between linear sprinting and jump performance, dynamic balance and change of direction on young soccer players. Ninety-four healthy young highly trained male soccer players belonging to the same high-performance academy agreed to participate in the study [twenty-seven soccer players U16 (14.8 +/- 0.4 years; height: 170.6 +/- 5.6 cm; body mass 64.7 +/- 8.4 kg)] and [sixty-seven soccer players U19 (16.6 +/- 1.3 years; height: 173.7 +/- 7.2 cm; body mass 66.7 +/- 8.0 kg)]. Participants completed 3 testing sessions, 7 days apart. Data from a CMJ, Crossover Hop Test, 10-m sprint test, 505 COD tests and the 90 degrees COD test were collected. Moderate correlations were found in some of the cases (r values were between 0.2 and 0.5 in all cases, being p < 0.05), indicating that linear sprinting, jumping performance and dynamic balance are influential factors in agility but are not the main limiting factor. The highest correlation was found between the cross-over hop test and the 505 COD test (r = 0.44; p < 0.001). The main evidence from the current study suggested that linear sprinting, jumping performance and dynamics balance are determinants of COD, namely explaining the variations in such a skill. The current study revealed that short-distance sprint and jumping performance significantly explain the variations of COD performance on young soccer players.

Automated summary

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between linear sprinting, jump performance, dynamic balance, and change of direction (COD) in young soccer players. The results showed moderate correlations between these factors, but linear sprinting, jumping performance, and dynamic balance were not the main limiting factors for agility. The highest correlation was found between the cross-over hop test and the 505 COD test. Linear sprinting, jumping performance, and dynamic balance were found to be determinants of COD, explaining the variations in this skill. The study also revealed that short-distance sprinting and jump performance significantly explained the variations in COD performance in young soccer players.