A comparison between a reactive- and a non-reactive agility test performed by adolescent handball players

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Agility is the ability to change direction rapidly in response to a stimulus. Agility is made up of many physiological qualities, such as change of direction speed, straight sprinting speed, leg muscle qualities and anthropometry, but also factors like perceptual decision-making factors, visual scanning and knowledge of situations. Agility can be divided into reactive agility and non-reactive agility where reactive agility involves a response to an unpredictable stimulus whereas non-reactive agility is a response to a predictable stimulus. Handball is a team sport that has both physical and physiological demands such as agility, strength, endurance and cognition. AIM: The aim of this study was to compare and investigate the relationship between two agility test in order see if reactive and non-reactive agility can be seen as two different qualities in adolescent handball players. METHOD: This study included 15 adolescent handball players (median age: 13 years; median/mean height: 168.5/170.4 cm; median/mean weight: 57.3/58.76 kg). The participants were tested in a non-reactive agility test, the Agility T-test, and a reactive agility test, FiTRO Agility Check. The Agility T-test was evaluated using a stopwatch and the software FiTRO Agility Check was used to determine the reaction time. The data colletion occured during a training session. For the statistical analysis Spearmans correlation test was used. RESULTS: This study showed a weak correlation between the two tests (r= -0.33, p=0.23). CONCLUSION: The result indicates that there is a weak correlation between the two tests and this could imply that reactive and non-reactive agility might be two different qualities in team-handball, however more studies are warrented.