Acta Gymnica 2014, 44(3):133-140 | DOI: 10.5507/ag.2014.013

Agility performance in athletes of different sport specializations

Erika Zemková, Dušan Hamar
Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Background: Data on agility skills in different populations using pre-planned, change of direction speed tests have previously been reported. However, there are no available data on the agility times of athletes specializing in different sports obtained from Reactive agility tests.

Objective: The study compares agility time in groups of athletes of different sports where agility is one of the limiting factors of performance.

Methods: Altogether 282 athletes of 14 sport specializations performed the Agility test. Their task was to touch, as fast as possible, with either the left or the right foot, one of four mats located outside each of the four corners of a 0.8 m square. The mats had to be touched in accordance with the location of a stimulus in one of the corners of a screen. The test consisted of 60 visual stimuli with random generation of their location on the screen and a time of generation of 500 to 2,500 ms. The result was a sum of the 32 best agility times.

Results: The Agility test has been found to be sensitive in distinguishing groups of athletes of different sport specializations. Table tennis players, badminton players, fencers, tae-kwon-do competitors and karate competitors showed the best agility times (< 350 ms), followed by ice-hockey, tennis, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and hockeyball players (350-400 ms), then aikidoists (400-450 ms), and finally judoists and wrestlers (450-500 ms).

Conclusions: The best agility times are in athletes of racquet sports, followed by competitors of combat sports with reactions to visual stimuli, then players of ball sports, and finally competitors of combat sports with reactions to tactile stimuli. Since this is the first study testing agility skills using the Reactive agility test in athletes of different sport specializations, data obtained can be used for comparison of athletes within particular sports.

Keywords: agility test, agility time, combat sports, sports games

Prepublished online: September 30, 2014; Published: September 1, 2014  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Zemková, E., & Hamar, D. (2014). Agility performance in athletes of different sport specializations. Acta Gymnica, 44(3), 133-140. doi: 10.5507/ag.2014.013
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Divald, P. (2012). Rýchlosť reakcie hráčov a brankárov v hokejbale [Speed of reactions of players and goalies in hockeyball]. Bratislava: Comenius University, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports.
    2. Farrow, D., Young, W., & Bruce, L. (2005). The development of a test of reactive agility for netball: A new methodology. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 8, 52-60. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    3. Gabbett, T., & Benton, D. (2009). Reactive agility of rugby league players. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 12, 212-214. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    4. Kováčiková, Z. (2012). Zmeny reakčno-rýchlostných schopností po rôznych formách agility tréningu [Changes of reaction-speed abilities after different forms of agility training] (Doctoral dissertation). Comenius University, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, Bratislava.
    5. Sheppard, J. M., & Young, W. B. (2006). Agility literature review: Classifications, training and testing. Journal of Sports Sciences, 24, 919-932. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    6. Sheppard, J. M., Young, W. B., Doyle, T. L., Sheppard, T. A., & Newton, R. U. (2006). An evaluation of a new test of reactive agility and its relationship to sprint speed and change of direction speed. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 9, 342-349. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    7. Štefániková, G., & Zemková, E. (2011). Posudzovanie disjunktívnych reakčno-rýchlostných schopností do jednotlivých smerov pohybu v bedmintone [Assessment of disjunctive reaction-speed abilities in each movement direction in badminton]. In J. Suchý a kol. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Scientific Conference "Sciencia movens" (pp. 117-121). Prague: Charles University.
    8. Tóth, I., Bielik, V., Bínovský, A., Duchoslav, L., Duvač, I., Filc, J., … Žák, F. (2010). Ľadový hokej: vysokoškolská učebnica aplikovaných predmetov pre trénerov špecializácie v ľadovom hokeji [Ice-hockey]. Bratislava: TO-MI Ice Hockey Agency.
    9. Young, W. B., & Willey, B. (2009). Analysis of a reactive agility field test. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 13, 376-378. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    10. Zemková, E. (2007). Agility in children. Tělesná výchova a sport mládeže, 73(2), 38-39.
    11. Zemková, E. (2012). Assessment of agility skills in sport and physical education. In Proceedings of the International Forum of Physical Education and Sports Science (p. 15). Chandigarh: Panjab University.
    12. Zemková, E., & Hamar, D. (1998a). Test disjunktívnych reakčno-rýchlostných schopností dolných končatín [Test of disjunctive reaction-speed abilities of lower limbs]. In M. Janura (Ed.), Sborník referátů z celostátní studentské vědecké konference v oboru kinantropologie (pp. 178-181). Olomouc: Palacký University.
    13. Zemková, E., & Hamar, D. (1998b). Disjunktívne reakčnorýchlostné schopnosti u športovcov rôznych špecializácií [Disjunctive reaction-speed abilities in athletes of different specializations]. In Proceedings of the Scientific Conference "37. východoslovenské lekárske dni pri príležitosti 50. výročia založenia Lekárskej fakulty a Fakultnej nemocnice v Košiciach" (p. 13). Nový Smokovec: Slovak Society of Sports Medicine.
    14. Zemková, E., & Hamar, D. (1998c). Disjunktívne reakčnorýchlostné schopnosti v úpolových športoch [Disjunctive reaction-speed abilities in combat sports]. In Proceedings of the scientific conference "Súčasný stav a perspektívy Sokola" (pp. 112-117). Košice: Technical University.
    15. Zemková, E., & Hamar, D. (1999). Disjunktívne reakčnorýchlostné schopnosti u športovcov rôznych špecializácií [Disjunctive reaction-speed abilities in athletes of different specializations]. Slovenský lekár, 9, 145-146.
    16. Zemková, E., & Hamar, D. (2009). Toward an understanding of agility performance. Boskovice: Albert.
    17. Zemková, E., & Hamar, D. (2013). Assessment of agility performance under sport-specific conditions. Asian Journal of Exercise and Sports Science, 10, 47-60.
    18. Zemková, E., & Hamar, D. (2014). Age-related changes in agility time in children and adolescents. International Journal of Science and Research, 3(11), 280-285.
    19. Zemková, E., Vilman, T., Kováčiková, Z., & Hamar, D. (2013). Reaction time in the Agility test under simulated competitive and non-competitive conditions. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 27, 3445-3449. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content