Comparison of Anaerobic Performance and Agility Characteristics Between American Football and Indoor Soccer Players

Abstract

Anaerobic energy metabolism and agility are significant determinants of performance within the game actions of team sports such as Indoor Soccer (IS) and American Football (AF) where physical activities labeled as explosive power take place intensively (Beam & Adam, 2011). In the study, the agility skills of male participants of Indoor soccer players (IS_P; n10) and American Football players (AF_P; n10) have been measured by T-test, Illinois agility test and 505 agility tests and the anaerobic energy metabolism, anaerobic capacity (AC) and anaerobic power (AP) has been measured by Wingate anaerobic power test (WAnT) Monark E894 bicycle ergometer. According to the findings of agility and WAnT measurements, IS_P has a significant superiority at AP evaluations although AC averages of two groups are similar (p˂0,05). IS_P have better scores than AF_P at agility tests T-test 23.7% (p<0,05), Illinois agility test 9.6% (p<0,05), 505 test 8.9% (p>0,05). AF_P has 9.2% more BMI averages than IS_P. Considering the negative effect of BMI on agility skill, this situation is thought to affect the agility skill of AF_P negatively. WAnT measurements have enabled us to evaluate the lower extremity power output of the participants of AF_P and IS_P. It has been recommended to determine the upper extremity power output in order to understand the differences and the anaerobic energy metabolism between two groups better.