ARTICOLI ORIGINALI   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2014 November;173(11):547-56

Copyright © 2014 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

The ambidextrous potential in soccer, and the trainability of the non-preferred foot of young elite soccer players

Koertz R., Bull Andersen T.

Department of Sport Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark, Dalgas Avenue 4, DK‑8000 Aarhus C, Denmark

AIM: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate if players and coaches should focus more on the non-preferred foot. The hypothesis of this study is that a small amount of training focusing on the non-preferred foot will improve the performance of the non-preferred foot for young elite players.
METHODS: Participants were 23 male elite soccer players, 13-16 years of age. They trained 6 times a week. The participants, who were randomly divided into a training group (N.=12) and a control group (N.=11), completed a pre and post test, which for each player consisted of 16 shots with their non-preferred foot towards a goal corner in a soccer goal. Velocity and accuracy were measured. The training intervention for the training group consisted of 7-13 training sessions.
RESULTS: The result showed only few statistic significant differences (P<0.05) in velocity and accuracy from the pre test to the post test for both the training group and the control group.
CONCLUSION: Confirmation of the hypothesis was not possible as too few results showed any significant differences. But the differences with significance were however, all in favour of the training period having a positive effect on the training group, which imply that it might be possible for young elite players to improve their non-preferred with a small amount of training.