THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REACTION TIME, AGILITY AND SPEED PERFORMANCE IN HIGH-LEVEL SOCCER PLAYERS

Suat Yıldız¹, Osman Ateş², Ertuğrul Gelen³, Erdem Çirak¹, Doğuş Bakici³, Volkan Sert⁴, Gurhan Kayihan^{5, *}, Ali Ozkan⁶

¹Manisa Celal Bayar University, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Manisa, Turkey - ²Istanbul University -Cerrahpasa, Faculty of Sport Sciences, İstanbul, Turkey - ³Sakarya University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Sakarya, Turkey - ⁴Van Yüzüncü Yil University, School of Physical Education and Sports, Van, Turkey - ⁵Wallingford Community Hospital, MSK Outpatient Physiotherapy, Oxford, United Kingdom - ⁶Bartin University, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Bartin, Turkey - ⁷Istanbul Basaksehir FC, İstanbul, Turkey

Purpose: In soccer, reaction time (RT), speed and agility are important athletic skills that affect the performance of athletes. The aim of our study was to examine the relationship between these three athletic skills. 

Materials and methods: In this study, 73 high-level, active soccer players having at least 5 years of game experience (training age 10.7±2.9 years) participated voluntarily. The physical characteristics of the soccer players were: height (177.8±5.5 cm), weight (73.6±8.1 kg), and age (22.0±2.7 years). The participant's tests which were taken on non-consecutive days measured RT (Visual reaction test, Lafayette, Multi-Operational Apparatus for Reaction Time (MOART) system), speed (15 m, Fusion Sport, Smart Speed) and agility (open skills (OS) and closed skills (CS), Fusion Sport, Smart Speed). 

Results: A significant correlation was found between agility (CS) and speed (p<0.05) however, there was no significant relationship between reaction time and agility (OS and CS) (p>0.05). 

Conclusion: The important athletic skills of speed and quick change of direction were shown to have an effect on each other. It may be of benefit to add change of direction drills to training programs in order to improve the speed performance of the athletes.