Development of a Soccer-Specific Agility Test

Background: Agility is defined as a rapid whole-body movement with change of velocity or direction in response to a stimulus. There exist only few soccer-specific agility tests, and the majority of them suffer from methodological issues.

Aims: To develop and evaluate a soccer-specific agility test.

Methods: Sixteen amateur soccer players performed 4 trials of the newly-developed agility test, which involved the participants completing a 12-m sprint with 2 directional changes of 45° at 2 and 7m. Timing began when a tester, at a distance of 14m, moved. The first directional change occurred in response to 2 possible passing movements of the tester, the second standardized into the target direction. Times were recorded via timing lights, duration of the tester’s time to complete the pass via video analysis.

Results: Players needed 3.05 ± 0.10s to complete the test, with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.22 over 4 trials. The tester’s time to complete the pass was 0.90 ± 0.03s, and the coefficient of variation (CV) over each trail was 3.01%.

Discussion and Conclusion: The results revealed a low reliability for total time, possibly because of the complex demands of the test. Therefore, a higher number of trials seems reasonable. The low CV indicates a good reliability of the tester’s time to complete the pass. Standardized video recordings presented on a life-size screen are recommended, and in order to record the player’s decision-making time high-speed cameras should be used. Additional construct validity of the test should be examined by comparing players of different performance levels.