Investigation of the effect of 8-week orientring trainings applied to football players between 14-18 years of age on the speed, agility, reaction time, acceleration and shot accuracy

This research was conducted to examine the effects of 8-week orienteering training on football players' speed, agility, reaction time, acceleration and shot accuracy. 30 male football players between the ages of 14-18 who participated in the research were divided into two groups: control (15) and experimental (15) groups. While the control group trained football 3 days a week for 8 weeks, the experimental group trained orienteering 3 days a week in addition to football training. The football players' 30-meter speed test, 505 agility test, 15-meter acceleration test, Disc touch test and Mor Christian shooting test were measured before and after the training. Data analysis was done with the SPSS 26.0 package program. Significance coefficient values were examined with the Shapiro-Wilk test. As a result of the application, it was determined that the data was normally distributed. Paired Sample T test was used to compare pretest and posttest results between groups, and univariate ANOVA test was used to compare pretest and posttest values between groups, and statistical significance levels were determined as p<0.05. According to the findings, after eight weeks of orienteering training, although the average time in the experimental group showed a greater decrease in speed, agility and acceleration parameters, no statistically significant difference was found between the control group and the control group (p>0.05). Although the increase in the average score of the experimental group in the shooting accuracy parameter was higher, no statistically significant difference was found between the control group and the control group (p>0.05). Although a greater decrease in reaction time was observed in the average time of the control group, there was no statistically significant difference between it and the experimental group (p>0.05). According to the results, it was concluded that although orienteering training applied to football players 3 days a week for 8 weeks caused positive improvements, these improvements were not significant (p>0.05).