Effects of a short-term speed, agility and quickness training programme on cognitive and physical performance in young soccer players

Purpose: The importance of cognition for soccer can be found in the concept of agility, defined as ‘‘skills and abilities needed to change direction, velocity or mode in response to a stimulus’’ (Young et al., 2015). Moreover, there is evidence that athletes with high- performance level show high cognitive function in general cognitive tasks compared with their low-level peers (Huijgen et al., 2015). Elucidating the effect of specific training methodologies on physical and cognitive domain of agility might be helpful for coaches to stimulate qualities related to performance. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of a short-term (4 weeks) non-soccer-specific training programme based on speed, agility and quickness (SAQ) on cognitive and physical performance in young soccer players. Methods: Twenty-one participants were randomly assigned either to non-sport specific training group based on SAQ drills (n = 11, 9.7 ± 0.4 yrs, 1.34 ± 0.07 m, 32.3 ± 0.6 kg) or soccer specific training group based on small sided games (SSG) drills (n = 10, 9.5 ± 0.6 yrs; 1.34 ± 0.05 m, 32.4 ± 0.5 kg). They were tested pre and post interventions on physical (5 m sprint, 20 m sprint and sprint with turns of 90°) and cognitive (inhibitory control by means of the Flanker task and perceptual speed by means of the visual search task) performance. Results: Although neither variable showed a significant time x group inter- action (p [ 0.05), the main effects of time were significant for 5 m sprint, inhibitory control, and perceptual speed (p \ 0.05), apparently showing de facto improvements after both training programme. Of note, the post-hoc analysis revealed that SAQ group improved 5 m sprint velocity, inhibitory control and perceptual speed (p \ 0.05) as compared to the SSG group (p [ 0.05). Conclusions: These findings suggest that a 4-week training programme based on SAQ would seem to be superior to soccer-specific training pro- gramme based on SSG for improving cognitive and physical performance in young soccer players. Non-sport-specific activities targeting speed, agility and quickness combined with cognitive engagement (i.e., SAQ) might be useful strategies to be included within a soccer training routine (perhaps also including SSG) at promoting both physical and cognitive domain of agility in youth soccer. References: Huijgen BCH, Leemhuis S, Kok NM, Verburgh L, Oosterlaan J, Elferink-Gemser MT, et al. Cognitive Functions in Elite and Sub- Elite Youth Soccer Players Aged 13 to 17 Years. PLOS ONE. 2015;10(12):e0144580. Young WB, Dawson B, Henry GJ. Agility and Change-of-Direction Speed are Independent Skills: Implications for Training for Agility in Invasion Sports. Int J Sports Sci. 2015;10(1):11.