The relationship of repeated agility to strength, power and repeated sprints

Abstract

Agility is one of a number of crucial factors which influence sporting performance. The performance of agility and particularly repeated agility however has received limited research in comparison with other physiological determinants of performance such as repeated sprint ability, power or strength. The purpose of the present study was to determine if repeated sprint ability, power or strength significantly affect repeated agility performance. Twelve male, university standard rugby players performed, in a randomised order, a repeated sprint test, a 1 repetition maximum half squat test, a power test and a repeated agility test. Mean values for the repeated sprint test, the power test and the peak 1 repetition maximum half squat were correlated against mean values for the repeated agility test. The mean reactive change of direction presented no significant correlation with any of the other performance variables (-0.406 < r <0.418). Mean total agility time found to correlate with mean reactive strength index, (r = -0.623, P = 0.03), mean 30m sprint time (r = 0.638, P = 0.026) and mean total sprint time (r = 0.595, P = 0.041). Mean initial acceleration of the agility protocol also showed correlations with mean reactive strength index (r = -0.602, P = 0.038), mean 30m sprint time (r = 0.688, P = 0.013) and mean total sprint time (r = 0.658, P = 0.02). The low correlations of the mean reactive change of direction in particular suggest that repeated agility is a distinct physiological variable which needs significant concentration within training if players are to improve.