Interdependent Development of Physical and Cognitive Skills in U12 Soccer Players: Sprinting, Agility, and Decision-Making Are Interconnected
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Change of direction (COD) and sprint abilities are essential in soccer, while reactive agility involves decision-making and perceptual/cognitive skills. This study aimed to examine the relationships between sprint speed, COD, and reactive agility in U12 soccer players. Methods: Thirty-three male players (age 10.40 ± 0.32 years) completed sprint tests (5 m, 10 m, 15 m), the Modified Agility T-Test (MAT), and the Y-Shaped Reactive Agility (Y-RSA) test, across two sessions. Results: The sprint, COD, and reactive agility tests showed high reliability. The Y-RSA test demonstrated strong reliability in regard to the initial sprint, COD-phase time, and total time. Significant correlations were found between sprint, COD, and reactive agility metrics. The sprint times were positively associated with the MAT and reactive agility times (e.g., sprint 15 m vs. total Y-RSA time: r = 0.740, p < 0.01). The smallest worthwhile changes (SWCs) indicated that these tests effectively detect performance improvements. Conclusions: This study demonstrated significant correlations between sprint speed, change of direction, and reactive agility in U12 soccer players, with the 15 m sprint showing the strongest association with reactive agility. These findings support the combined use of physical and perceptual/cognitive assessments to better inform soccer-specific training and evaluate the performance of youth players.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".