Abstract

This study compared reactive agility between higher-standard (n=14) and lower-standard (n=14) Australian footballers using a reactive agility test incorporating a life-size video image of another player changing direction, including and excluding a feint. Mean agility time in the feint trials was 34% (509+243 ms; p50.001; effect size 3.06) longer than non-feint trials. In higher-standard players, agility time was shorter than for lower-standard players in both feint (114+140 ms; p=0.18; effect size 0.52; likely beneficial) and non-feint (32+44 ms; p=0.22; effect size 0.47; possibly beneficial) trials. Additionally, the inclusion of a feint resulted in movement time increasing over three times more in the lower-standard group (197+91 ms; p=0.001; effect size 1.07; almost certainly detrimental) than the higher-standard group (62+86 ms; p=0.23; effect size 0.66; likely detrimental). There were weak correlations between the feint and non-feint trials (r=70.13– 0.14; p40.05), suggesting that reactive agility involving a feint is a unique skill. Also, higher-standard players are more agile than their lower-standard peers, whose movement speed deteriorates more as task complexity increases with the inclusion of a feint. These results support the need for specific training in multi-turn reactive agility tasks. Verf.-Referat