Relationship of Planned and Unplanned Directional Running Performance with Physical Fitness Levels and Motivation

Aim: There are low and high correlations in the studies examining the relationship between acute physical fitness levels with speed and agility skills. In addition, there are few studies examining the relationship between motivation, and physical fitness skills. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the acute physical fitness levels with speed and agility skills. Method: A total of 25 amateur young football players, all aged 18, participated in this study. Firstly, participants completed the motivation scale. Subsequently, the following performance tests were administered: static postural control on one leg, squat jump, countermovement jump with arm swing (also known as Abalakov jump), dominant leg vertical jump, non-dominant leg vertical jump, thirty-meter linear sprint, pro-agility test, and Y-reactive agility test. Results: Since the data did not meet the assumption of normal distribution, Spearman correlation analysis was used, and the significance level was set at p>0.05. According to the results, no significant relationship was found between motivation levels and the performance test results (p>0.05). However, strong correlations were observed between squat jump, countermovement jump with arm swing (jump height in centimeters and leg muscle power in watts), and the thirty-meter linear sprint and pro-agility performance (with correlation coefficients ranging between 0.636 and 0.870). Additionally, high correlations were also found between dominant and non-dominant leg vertical jumps and sprint-agility performance (correlation coefficients ranging from 0.622 to 0.829). Conclusion: This study suggests that coaches may benefit from guiding their athletes toward exercises that enhance both single-leg and double-leg strength in order to improve sprinting and agility performance more effectively.