Agility and Perceptual Skills

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The below may be of interest:

Reactive agility of rugby league players

Copyright © 2007 Sports Medicine Australia Published by Elsevier Ltd

Tim Gabbetta, , and Dean Bentonb

Summary

While studies have investigated change of direction speed in rugby

league players, no study has investigated the reactive agility of

these athletes.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the

reactive agility of rugby league players, to determine if this

quality discriminated higher and lesser skilled players. Twenty-four

elite (mean ± S.D. age, 24.5 ± 4.2 years) and 42 sub-elite (23.6 ±

5.3 years) rugby league players completed a game-specific test of

reactive agility. Elite players had better response accuracy (93.2 ±

1.9% vs. 85.5 ± 2.5%; p < 0.05, effect size = 0.58) and faster

decision (89.5 ± 5.8 ms vs. 111.5 ± 6.4 ms; p < 0.05, effect size =

0.62) and movement times (2.35 ± 0.03 s vs. 2.56 ± 0.03 s; p < 0.05,

effect size = 1.39) on the reactive agility test than sub-elite

players. The reactive agility test was able to distinguish four

distinct classifications. Specifically, players were classified as

requiring either (1) decision-making and change of direction speed

training to further consolidate good physical and perceptual

abilities, (2) decision-making training to develop below average

perceptual abilities, (3) change of direction speed training to

develop below average physical attributes or (4) a combination of

decision-making and change of direction speed training to develop

below average physical and perceptual abilities.

The results of this

study demonstrate that a test of reactive agility discriminates

higher and lesser skilled rugby league players. In addition, these

findings highlight the important contribution of perceptual skill to

agility in rugby league players.

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At the 5th World Congress on Science & Football (Soccer) Professor

Brain Dawson made some interesting comments with regard to speed,

agility and quickness training in football and rugby union. He linked

the physiological side of training to the psychological aspects

concerning perceptual information and decision-making. It was

suggested that these psychological aspects should not be

underestimated when attempting to improve agility (adapted from

BASES, 2002).

Comments?

Carruthers

Wakefield, UK