The effect of open skills trainings on reactive agility performance i̇n women soccer players

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of 8-week open skill agility training on reactive agility performance in female soccer players. Materials and Methods: Sixteen athletes aged 18 and under (age: 15,26 ± 2,58 years, height: 161,50 ± 5,47 cm, body weight: 51,75 ± 4,92 kg, age at training: 4,13 ± 1,59 years) from an amateur women's soccer team participated voluntarily in the study. A randomized controlled experimental design was applied in the study. The open skill agility test protocol developed by Farrow (2010) was used to measure the reaction speed to visual stimuli in the study. Athletes were classified according to their ages, training history, and open skill agility pre-test total times and divided into two groups as open skill group and control group. Open skill agility training continued 2 days a week for 8 weeks. At the end of the 8-week study period, a post-test was applied to all subjects and the study was terminated. Results: While a statistically significant difference was found in the sprint time, total agility time and decision-making time scores between the pre-test and post-test measurements of the training group, no statistically significant difference was found in the movement time scores. No statistically significant difference was found in the movement time, sprint time, total agility time and decision-making time scores between the pre-test and post-test measurements of the control group. Although the difference between the pre-test and post-test movement time, sprint time, total agility time and decision-making time scores of the training and control groups was statistically significant, a positive development was seen in the post-test values of the training group. Conclusion: These findings indicate that visual stimulus-based open skill agility training can be effective in improving performance parameters such as speed and decision making in female football players. The fact that the differences between the groups did not reach statistical levels may be related to factors such as sample size and application duration. Although the differences are not statistically significant, it can be said that they can be meaningful in practice and reflect the positive effects of the training program. Keywords: Open Skill; Soccer; Women's Soccer; Performance; Reactive Agility