The Effects Of Hurdle Jumps On Agility Among Chinese Children:a Randomized Control Trial

The Effects of Hurdle Jumps on Agility Among Chinese Children: A randomized control trial Songmei Lin, Hongjun Yu, Pu Sun, Weimo Zhu PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine the effects of hurdle jump (HJ) training on agility performance among Chinese children. METHODS:A total of 66 were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the hurdle jump (HJ) group (n = 33) (16 males and 17 females; age: 11.55 ± 0.71 years; height: 148.00 ± 7.23 cm; weight: 41.33 ± 14.85 kg; BMI: 18.59 ± 5.64), and the control (C) group (n = 33) (12 males and 21 females; age: 11.27 ± 0.45 years; height: 148.09 ± 7.80 cm; weight: 41.66 ± 11.32 kg; BMI: 18.83 ± 4.14). The HJ groups, besides of their regular physical education (PE) classes three times per week, underwent six weeks of training, performing their respective exercises three times per week. In contrast, the C group only attended the regular PE physical education classes. Agility performance was assessed using Illinois Agility Test before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using paired t-tests. RESULTS:After six weeks of agility training, in the T-Agility Test, the HJ group demonstrated the largest improvement (12.33% improvement; pre-test: 15.32 s, post-test: 13.43 s, t = 9.13, p < 0.001). The C group exhibited only a moderate improvement (3.86% improvement; pre-test: 14.75 s, post-test: 14.18 s, t = 3.18, p < 0.01). Similarly, for the Illinois Agility Test, the HJ group exhibited a statistically significant improvement (6.67% improvement; pre-test: 22.35 s, post-test: 20.86 s, t = 8.64, p < 0.001), while the C group showed no significant change (2.97% improvement; pre-test: 22.22 s, post-test: 21.56 s, t = 1.44, p = 0.08). CONCLUSION:The hurdle jump training significantly enhanced agility in Chinese children. These findings suggest that hurdle jump exercises should be considered as a more efficient method for agility development in children.