Repeated Dribbling Ability in Young Soccer Players: Reproducibility and Variation by the Competitive Level.
The intermittent nature of match performance in youth soccer supports relevance of ability to repeatedly produce high-intensity actions with short recovery periods. This study was aimed to examine the reproducibility of a repeated dribbling ability protocol and, additionally, to estimate the contribution of concurrent tests to explain inter-individual variability in repeated dribbling output. The total sample comprised 98 players who were assessed as two independent samples: 31 players were assessed twice to examine reliability of the protocol; and 67 juveniles aged 16.1 ± 0.6 years were compared by the competitive level (local, n = 34; national, n = 33) to examine construct validity. All single measurements appeared to be reasonably reliable: total (ICC = 0.924; 95%CI: 0.841 to 0.963); ideal (ICC = 0.913; 95%CI: 0.820 to 0.958); worst (ICC = 0.813; 95%CI: 0.611 to 0.910). In addition, the percentage of the coefficient of variation was below the critical value of 5% for total (%CV = 3.84; TEM = 2.51 s); ideal (%CV = 3.90, TEM = 2.48 s). Comparisons between local and national players suggested magnitude effects as follows: moderate (d-value ranged from 0.63 to 0.89) for all repeated sprint ability scores; large for total (d = 1.87), ideal (d = 1.72), worst (d = 1.28) and moderate for composite scores: the fatigue index (d = 0.69) and the decrement score (d = 0.67). In summary, the dribbling protocol presented reasonable reproducibility properties and output extracted from the protocol seemed to be independent from biological maturation.
uid/dtp/03213/2016, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, University of Coimbra , Portugal.
João P
JP
Duarte
School of Health and Technology, Coimbra , Portugal.
Óscar
Ó
Tavares
uid/dtp/03213/2016, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, University of Coimbra, Portugal; Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, ULHT, Lisbon, Portugal.
João
J
Valente-Dos-Santos
uid/dtp/03213/2016, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, University of Coimbra , Portugal.
Vítor
V
Severino
uid/dtp/03213/2016, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, University of Coimbra , Portugal.
Alexis
A
Ahmed
uid/dtp/03213/2016, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, University of Coimbra , Portugal.
Ricardo
R
Rebelo-Gonçalves
uid/dtp/03213/2016, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, University of Coimbra , Portugal.
João R
JR
Pereira
uid/dtp/03213/2016, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, University of Coimbra , Portugal.
Vasco
V
Vaz
CIDESD, University Institute of Maia (ISMAI), Maia , Portugal.
Susana
S
Póvoas
Faculty Sport, University of Porto , Portugal.
André
A
Seabra
School for Health, University of Bath , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Sean P
SP
Cumming
uid/dtp/03213/2016, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, University of Coimbra , Portugal.
Manuel J
MJ
Coelho-E-Silva
intra-class correlation; reliability; short-term maximal effort