Development of agility performance among adolescents: the multi-sport approach

The multi-sport approach is suggested as a natural method towards developing physical fitness among young athletes. Coaches were urged to apply this approach with emphasis on a fun activity, active play and small-sided games in order to maximize the benefit of this approach. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of a multi-sport approach towards the development of agility performance among adolescents. A quasi-experimental design was used for the study. Forty adolescents (n= 40), age between 13 to 14 years old randomly assigned to the control group (CG) (n= 20) and experimental group (EG) (n= 20). The EG multi-sport approach consisted of playing football, futsal, sepak takraw, volleyball, basketball and netball. While, the CG performed football and futsal training only, thrice for 12 weeks. The agility performance was assessed three times using the Quadrant Jump test. One during pre-test (baseline), second on post-test 1 (week 6) and third on post-test 2 (week 12). RESULTS: In the EG group, the agility performance increased significantly compared to CG with F (1, 38) = 64.53, p >.0001. The agility performance was improved by 5.85 mean total of jumping in the EG in week 12. The multi-sport training approach increased the agility performance among adolescents. As a conclusion, this training approach is more effective and should become a training routine at any level of sport development.