Effects of circuit training method on reactive agility and endurance in table tennis players

Background and Study Aim. Reactive agility and aerobic endurance are crucial physical components for athletes' success in both competitions and training. However, traditional training programs often fail to simultaneously address both components effectively. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a training type using the circuit method to improve reactive agility and aerobic endurance. Material and Methods. This research is an experimental study employing a pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design. The participants were fourteen junior male athletes aged 15 to 17 years. The training program was conducted three times a week for six weeks and included eight different exercises. The instruments used were table tennis reactive agility measuring devices and the beep test for assessing aerobic endurance. Data were analyzed using the paired sample T-test. Results. The results of the data normality test showed a significance value (Sig.) greater than 0.05, indicating that the data were normally distributed and suitable for further analysis. Subsequent testing for the effectiveness of the exercise regimen using the paired sample T-test revealed significant improvements: reactive agility and aerobic endurance both achieved a p-value of 0.000. Conclusions. The findings indicate that circuit training, involving eight types of exercises, significantly improved the athletes' reactive agility and aerobic capacity. Specifically, there was a notable average increase in both reactive agility and aerobic capacity following the training regimen. These results underscore the potential benefits of employing the circuit training method with eight diverse exercises to enhance performance in table tennis athletes.