The Effect of a Unified Football Training on Physical Fitness and Skill Performance in Students with Intellectual Disability

Individuals with intellectual disability often experience reduced physical fitness and limited access to structured sport participation. Unified Sports, which integrate athletes with and without intellectual disability, promote social inclusion but their impact on physical and skill performance remains less explored. This study examined the effect of a 12-week Unified Football Training Program on physical fitness and football-specific skills in students with intellectual disability. A pre-test, post-test control group design was used with forty students aged 13–18 years with mild intellectual disability. Participants were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 20) that underwent Unified Football Training and a control group (n = 20) that continued with regular physical education. The baseline characteristics exhibited no significant differences between the groups (p > 0.05). The intervention involved five 60-minute sessions per week for twelve weeks. Physical outcomes included endurance, upper and lower body strength, and agility, while football-specific outcomes included dribbling, shooting, and run-and-kick assessed through Special Olympics skill tests. Results revealed significant improvements in the experimental group over the control group in endurance (p = 0.000), upper body strength (p = 0.001), lower body strength (p = 0.000), agility (p = 0.002), dribbling (p = 0.001), shooting (p = 0.001), and run-and-kick (p = 0.000). These findings confirm that structured, inclusive football training enhances physical fitness and sport-specific skills in students with intellectual disability. Unified Football represents a practical model for inclusive physical education, supporting national initiatives such as the Fit India Movement and the National Education Policy 2020.