Change-of-direction, speed and jump performance in soccer players: a comparison across different age-categories

Assessing Change of Direction Ability in a Spanish Elite Soccer Academy

“…Similarly, Loturco et al (2019) did not find differences in change of direction speed between U17 (16.3 ± 0.2 years) and U20 (19.1 ± 0.4 years) players from top-level Brazilian soccer clubs. Moreover, senior soccer players showed a likely to very likely lower COD speed performance than U17 and U20 players (Loturco et al, 2019). In addition, Mujika et al (2009) did not find differences between Spanish first division and junior players belonging to the same club in the 15 m CODA test.…”

“…Senior, U-19, U-17 and U-16) in MATfree nor in MATtop, after the peak height velocity (Deprez et al, 2015;Mendez-Villanueva et al, 2011). Similarly, Loturco et al (2019) did not find differences in change of direction speed between U17 (16.3 ± 0.2 years) and U20 (19.1 ± 0.4 years) players from top-level Brazilian soccer clubs. Moreover, senior soccer players showed a likely to very likely lower COD speed performance than U17 and U20 players (Loturco et al, 2019).…”

“…Among other factors (e.g. the characteristics of the tests), the absence of differences could be due to the reduction of individual variations in motor coordination that occurs in the mid-teenage years (Spencer et al, 2011), the effects of a prolonged exposure to "concurrent" training (i.e., highvolume of technical and tactical training in detriment to neuromuscular training) (Loturco et al, 2018), or the ineffectiveness of the neuromuscular training programs used in different stages of player's maturation (Loturco et al, 2019).…”

Reliability and validity of field‐based fitness tests in youth soccer players

“…Similarly, due to the intermittent and open nature of soccer game play, the importance of reactive agility (change of velocity of direction in response to a stimulus) is stressed with regards to soccer performance (Loturco et al, 2019). Whilst many of these actions are also considered 'running characteristics' (discussed above in Section 2.2.1.1), the absolute performance of these abilities is underpinned by strength and power qualities.…”

“…Assessments challenging the motor coordination of youth and child athletes have been suggested to demonstrate discriminative ability between varied performance standards (Deprez, Valente-Dos-Santos, et al, 2015;Fransen et al, 2014Fransen et al, , 2017, thus promoting the implementation of SBJ as an additional or alternative to CMJ to assess power characteristics within an athletic population. Additional, less common assessments of power within soccer players have included rate of force development (RFD) assessments using isometric dynamometers (Dos'Santos et al, 2017a;Requena et al, 2009), isolated examination of COD ability (Loturco et al, 2019), or alternative jumping or throwing tests (Chamari et al, 2008;Hulse et al, 2013;Van Den Tillaar & Marques, 2013). As a key influencer of assessment choice is an ability to compare to normative scoring from varied population groups, these less commonly implemented measures often fall wayward to CMJ when assembling a testing battery to assess physical characteristics of soccer players (Turner et al, 2011).…”