The Development of Specific Training Programs to Improve the Speed, Agility, Quickness, and Pass-Receiving Performance of Soccer Players

Abstract

Background and Aim: In the field of college-level soccer, the quality of training mode is directly related to the overall competitive level of the team and the individual performance of the athletes. However, although soccer training at the college level is often aimed at specialization and systematism, research has shown that several common problems prevent the optimal results of training. These problems may involve a lack of personalized, targeted, or scientifically based training programs that limit overall improvement in speed, agility, quickness, and pass-receiving performance. Some college-level soccer training programs may fail to adequately account for individual athlete differences and fail to accurately locate and address bottlenecks in specific skills and abilities. This can lead to erratic training results, making it difficult for some athletes to perform at their best in competition. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct an in-depth analysis of the problems existing in the current college-level soccer training and propose a specific training program to promote the athletes in the key skills and abilities more targeted. To address these issues, this study aims to develop a specific soccer training program to improve the speed, agility, quickness, and pass-receiving performance of college-level soccer players. A specific training program is a training method that combines different training methods and principles, which can make full use of the advantages of various training methods and avoid the disadvantages of various training methods, to achieve the best training effect. The main purposes of this study are as follows: 1) To explore the training elements and mechanisms related to speed, agility, quickness, and pass-receiving performance and to provide a theoretical basis and guiding principles for specific training programs. 2) Design and implement a specific training program to provide college-level soccer players with a novel and effective way of training to improve their skill level and competitiveness. 3) To evaluate and compare the effect and improvement of the specific training program, to provide empirical evidence and suggestions for the optimization and innovation of soccer training.

Materials and Methods: This study’s main objective is to develop of specific training program to improve speed, agility, quickness, and pass-receiving performance for soccer players. In this experiment, 32 school soccer players from Jiying University were selected as experimental subjects by simple random sampling. The experimental group (N=16) underwent specific training intervention, while the control group (N=16) underwent regular training. The test indicators were selected from the "2021 National Youth Campus Soccer Summer Camp Best Team Selection Test Measures" jointly issued by the Ministry of Education and the Department of Physical Health and Art in April 2021. There are 5 test indicators in total: the 10-meter sprint test (sec), Agility test (sec), Pass-receiving Performance (sec), quickness test (sec), and Pass performance (sec), which mainly examined the comprehensive test plan of various special physical qualities such as athletes' speed, agility of dribbling change direction, quickness, pass-receiving performance. The experimental group then followed a specific training program for 8 weeks, 3 days, and 1.30 hours per day.

Result: The results showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups of athletes before the experiment (p > 0.05), which provided a basis for the experiment. After 8 weeks of experimental, the experimental group 5 test indicators had significant differences compared with the control group and also within the experimental group (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: This specific training program can improve the pass-receiving performance of soccer players.