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Milanović, Z. et al.: Differences in agility performance between futsal and soccer... Sport Science 4 (2011) 2: 55-59
55
DIFFERENCES IN AGILITY PERFORMANCE BETWEEN FUTSAL
AND SOCCER PLAYERS
Zoran Milanović1, Goran Sporiš2, Nebojša Trajković1 and Fredi Fiorentini3
1 Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Niš, Serbia
2 Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Zagreb, Croatia
3 Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Split, Croatia
Original scientific paper
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine differences in agility performance between futsal and soccer
players. The research was conducted on a sample of 82 subjects divided in two groups: 40 futsal players
(body mass 70.39 ± 5.33 kg; body height 176.26 ± 6.85 cm) and 42 soccer players (body mass 70.86 ±
5.65 kg; body height 175.42 ± 5.95 cm). The subjects were tested in the following variables: Slalom test
(SL); Slalom test with ball (SLB); Sprint with 90° turns (S90°); Sprint with 90° turns with ball (SB90°);
Sprint 9-3-6-3-9 m with 180° turns (S180°); Sprint 9-3-6-3-9 m with backward and forward running (SBF).
The values for the Slalom test with and without the ball are very similar for soccer and futsal players and
without statistically significant difference (slalom test p = 0674; slalom test with ball p = 0830). The same
results are in the sprint test 9-3-6-3-9 whether it was done by turning for 180° or with running back and
forth. For the agility performance of players, in the tests SL and SLB there was no statistically significant
difference between futsal and soccer players. The futsal and soccer players differ in the intensity exertion
during the game, but not in the motor activities such as agility. Agility is a very important component of
both, futsal and soccer and it represents a common characteristic. Based on that fact we can conclude that
the players in these two sports are very similar in agility performance.
Key words: field test, futsal, comparison, team sport
Introduction
Despite the fact that soccer is one of the most
popular sports today, interest in futsal slowly starts
to grow (Roxburg, 2008) and therefore its
popularity too. Compared to soccer, futsal has very
similar game structure. Nevertheless, it has been
much less the object of scientific research. Up to
date, much more researches have been conducted
in soccer than in futsal. It is particularly interesting
that only a few studies exist which deals with the
comparison of players in soccer and futsal, despite
the fact that they are very related.
What the soccer and futsal have in common is that
they represent an intermittent high-intensity
activity which is based not only of aerobic but also
of anaerobic capacity of players (Barbero-Alvarez et
al., 2008; Bangsbo et al., 1991; Ben Abdelkrim et
al., 2007). However, the intensity during the futsal
match was almost 90% of the maximum Heart rate
(Barbaro-Alvarez et al., 2008) compared to match
intensity in soccer that was lower and ranged from
80 to 90% of maximum Heart rate (Reilly, 1994).
In futsal the total distance covered during the
match consists of 13.7% high intensity running and
8.9% sprinting (Barbaro-Alvarez et al., 2008). In
soccer, those high intensity activities account about
11% (Baron et al., 2007, Reilly et al., 2000). In
addition, Dragomaci & Watsford (2006) has pointed
out that futsal players spend 26% of time during
the match in high intensity level, which is direct
consequence of futsal rules that allow players more
frequent changes than in soccer.
The technical proficiency of futsal players is
influenced by the smaller ball, which forces the
players to technically more quickly and accurately
respond in control and keeping the ball (Burns,
2003; Goncalves, 1998). Besides this, the reduced
size of the field will cause a constant pressure from
the opposite players, so the futsal players are
found under constant markings and in situations
1vs1 (Vaeyens et al., 2007). Such reduced pitch
dimensions and the frequent turnovers during
futsal match requires from players fast decision-
making and high sprint capabilities under pressure
during attacking and defending phases of the
game (Vaeyens et al., 2007). The question is
whether they need better agility performance in
order to help them to come to a better position to
receive the ball and threaten the opponent's goal.
The ability of athletes to make a quick movement
of the entire body with a change of direction and
speed of movement, known as agility (Sheppard
and Young, 2006) may represent a basic
component in team sports such as futsal and
football. During a soccer match and the player
frequently performs activities that require rapid
development of force, such as sprinting or changing
direction quickly (Bangsbo, 1996). High-speed
actions in soccer and futsal can be categorized into
actions requiring acceleration, maximal speed, or
agility (Gambetta, 1996). Concerning that fact,
SAQ (speed, agility and quickness) method has
become dominant in training (Pearson, 2001).
Milanović, Z. et al.: Differences in agility performance between futsal and soccer... Sport Science 4 (2011) 2: 55-59
56
Based on the determination model of agility, Young
& Farrow (2006) emphasize the ability of
perception and decision-making as a key skill of
agility athletes in team sports, to which futsal and
soccer belong too. As it is already mentioned
above, there are few studies related to futsal with
the objectives mostly based on physiological
response of players (Castagna et al., 2007;
Barbero-Alvarez et al., 2008) or aerobic fitness
(Barbero-Alvarez et al., 2009). Also, to our
knowledge, there are no studies that compare
men's futsal and soccer players in agility
performance. Although agility is one of the motor
skills that are still unexplored in Futsal, still it
represents a very important component regard to
the amount of high intensity movements during the
match. Knowing all that, the purpose of this study
was to determine the differences in agility
performance between futsal and soccer players.
Methods
Subjects
The research was conducted on a sample of 82
subjects divided in two groups: 40 futsal players
(body mass = 70.39 ± 5.33 kg; body height =
176.26 ± 6.85 cm) and 42 soccer players (body
mass = 70.86 ± 5.65 kg; body height = 175.42 ±
5.95 cm). Soccer and futsal players in this research
were taken from the first Croatian football and
futsal league. All players were fully informed and
they signed a consent form. The study protocol was
held for every subject. Beside the results, the basic
anthropometric parameters (body height and body
weight) were registered in the study protocol. The
tests were performed on the same day in the
morning for all the subjects. The study was
approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of
Kinesiology, University of Zagreb. Subjects were
admitted in the study if they had a minimum
training age of 3yr, engaged in strenuous training
at least 10 h per week and were currently active in
competition. The characteristics of the sample are
presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Descriptive statistics parameters
Futsal Soccer
N=40
(Mean±SD)
N=42
(Mean±SD)
Body height (cm) 176.26±6.85 175.42±5.95
Body mass (kg) 70.39±5.33 70.86±5.65
S180° (s) 7.49±0.45 7.48±0.37
SBF (s) 7.93±0.45 7.73±0.44
SL (s) 3.66±0.81 3.74±0.73
SLB (s) 7.96±0.94 7.91±1.12
SB90° (s) 9.91±0.63 9.71±0.67
S90° (s) 7.75±0.61 7.45±0.69
SL-Slalom Test; SLB-Slalom Test with ball; S90°-Sprint
With 90° Turns; SB90°-Sprint With 90° Turns with ball;
S180°-Sprint 9-3-6-3-9 m with 180° Turns; SBF-Sprint 9-
3-6-3-9 m with Backward and Forward Running.
Procedure
Body height and body weight were measured
according to the instructions of the International
Biological Program–IBP (Weiner & Lourie, 1969).
The body height was measured with a GPM
anthropometer (Siber & Hegner, Zurich,
Switzerland) to the nearest 0.1 cm. Body weight
was obtained by Tanita BC 540 (Tanita Corp.,
Arlington Heights, IL) to the nearest 0.1 kg. Tests:
1) Slalom Test (SL): They all started with both feet
behind starting point. Six cones were set up 2 m
apart, the first cone 1 m away from the starting
line. Every player stood still facing the starting line,
with his feet apart and the cone between his legs.
He started after the signal and ran from point to
point. The player at second point had to be passed
on his right-hand side. The player continued to run
as fast as possible constantly changing the direction
from right to left, until he reached the player
standing at last point. After last point, the player
made an 180° turn and went on running the slalom
to the starting line. 2) Slalom Test with ball (SLB):
The test is by the structure the same to the SL test,
but it differs only in that sense that it was
performed with the ball. 3) Sprint With 90° Turns
(S90°): The players began with both of their feet
behind starting point. They started from first point
after the signal, ran as fast as possible to second
point, and made a 90° turn to the right. After
reaching second point, they continued to run to
third point where they made a 90° turn to the left.
At fourth point, they made another 90° turn to the
left and ran on to point five, where they made a
90° to the right. Point six had the same direction
and turning angle (90° turn to the right). At point
seven, they made a turn to the left and ran on to
the finish line-point. The track was 15 m long, the
distance between the start line and the first flag
was 3 m, the second and the third 2 m, the third
and the fourth 2 m, the fourth and the fifth 5 m,
the fifth and the sixth 3 m, the sixth and the
seventh 3 m, the seventh and the eight 2 m, and
nine 2 m. 4) Sprint With 90° Turns with ball
(SB90°): The test is by the structure the same to
the S90° test, but it differs only in that sense that
it was performed with the ball. 5) Sprint 9-3-6-3-9
m with 180° Turns (S180°): The players started
after the signal and ran 9 m from starting line A to
line B (the lines were white, 3 m long and 5 cm
wide). Having touched line B with one foot, they
made either a 180° left or right turn. All the
following turns had to be made in the same
direction. The players then ran 3 m to line C, made
another 180° turn, and ran 6 m forward. Then,
they made another 180° turn (line D) and ran
another 3 m forward (line E), before making the
final turn and running the final 9 m to the finish line
(line F). 6) Sprint 9-3-6-3-9 m with Backward and
Forward Running (SBF): The distance that the
players had to cover was the same as in the
previous test (S180°). The only difference was that
instead of making a turn, the players shifted from
forward to backward running. After the starting
signal, they ran 9 m from starting line A to line B
(the lines were white, 3 m long and 5 cm wide).
Milanović, Z. et al.: Differences in agility performance between futsal and soccer... Sport Science 4 (2011) 2: 55-59
57
Having touched line B with one foot, the players
shifted from running forward to running backward.
Then, they ran 3 m to line C and changed from
backward running to forward running. After 6 m,
the players made another change (line D) and ran
another 3 m backward (line E) and then made the
final change and ran the final 9 m forward to the
finish line (line F). All tests used in this study were
reliable and had good metric characteristics (Sporis
et al., 2010). The tests were performed from a
standing start and measured by means of infrared
photocells (RS Sport, Zagreb, Croatia).
Data analysis
The statistical Package for Social Sciences SPSS
(v18.0, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL) was used for the
statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics were
calculated for all experimental data. Kolmogorov-
Smirnov test was used to test if data were normally
distributed. Statistical power was calculated using
G-power software.The significance of differences
between soccer and futsal players was determined
by the Independent-Samples T test. We used the
Bonferrony correction for the level of significance,
so the level was p < 0.0083.
Results
The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showed that data
was normally distributed. Statistical power was
0.95 and effect size was from r = 0.024 to r =
0.45. The greatest effect size was found in the tests
S900(r = 0.46) and SBF (r = 0.45) and the lowest
for the test S1800r = 0.02. Basic statistical
parameters has shown that players have similar
values of body height and body mass (Table 1).
The average body height of soccer players was
175.42 ± 5.95 cm and of futsal players 176.26 ±
6.85 cm. The average body mass among soccer
players was 70.86 ± 5.65 kg, while among futsal
players 70.39 ± 5.33 kg. Other descriptive
parameters have shown that the soccer players
achieved better results in all tested variables for
agility except for the slalom test, where the
average values for futsal player was 3.66 ± 0.81
seconds and for soccer players 3.74 ± 0.73 sec.
Table 2. Differences - futsal and soccer players
t
df
Sig. (2
-
tailed)
S180°
0.12
80
.903
SBF
1.99
80
.051
SL
-
0.42
80
.674
SLB
0.22
80
.830
SB90°
1.34
80
.183
S90°
2.06
80
.043
SL-Slalom Test; SLB-Slalom Test with ball; S90°-Sprint
With 90° Turns; SB90°-Sprint With 90° Turns with ball;
S180°-Sprint 9-3-6-3-9 m with 180° Turns; SBF-Sprint 9-
3-6-3-9 m with Backward and Forward Running.
The values for the Slalom test with and without the
ball are very similar for soccer and futsal players
and without statistically significant difference
(slalom test p = 0674; slalom test with ball p =
0830).
Thus, the same results are in sprint test 9-3-6-3-9
whether it was done by turning for 180 ° or with
running back and forth. For the agility performance
of players, in the test change of direction for 90 °
there was no statistically significant difference
between futsal and soccer players (p = 0.043). In
addition, no statistically significant difference has
been found to the one (SB90°) done with the ball
(p = 0,183).
Discussion
Average values of players’ body height and body
mass are similar or slightly higher than the values
of the national team players’ of Singapore and the
first League players’ of Iceland and Hong Kong
(Arnason et al., 2004; Aziz & Chin, 2000; Chin et
al., 1994). Body height of futsal players is similar to
the one found in the study conducted among
Spanish professional futsal players. The study has
also shown that Spanish players were slightly
heavier (76.9 kg) (Esteban et al., 2009). It is
interesting that specific agility tests have shown no
significant difference between futsal and soccer
players, despite the fact that the size of the ball
used in futsal significantly differs to one used in
soccer (Burns, 2003; Goncalves, 1998). This leads
us to the conclusion that in both, the elite soccer
and futsal, it is necessary to have very skilful
players. That was indicated by STB test of dribbling
the ball with the inside of the foot as well as by
SB90° test in which all the leading skills of
controlling the ball have been examined (dribbling
the ball with inner and outer side of the foot and
etc.).
There was no statistically significant difference in
the test S900in which the change of direction for
the 90° dominated. The soccer players have shown
better results than the futsal players in that test,
but it was not statistically significant. The
explanation could be found in the fact that this type
of turn (0-90°) during the match is the most
common structure which makes 85% of all the
turns during the match (Bloomfield et al., 2007).
Bloomfield et al. (2007) stated that during the
soccer match each player performs approximately
305 turns of 0-90° to the right side and 303 turns
of 0-90° to the left side. Since the test S90°
includes change of direction at angle greater than
90° in practical terms, there was no difference
between futsal and soccer players. On the other
hand, the difference is obvious because during the
soccer match there are 45 turns on the right and
49 turns on the left side when the angle for the
change of direction is 0-180°, which represents
about 10% of all turns. The research results
demonstrate that both futsal and soccer players
have quite a similar motor characteristics of agility
type. The results obtained by this research could be
explained by the fact that in Croatia does not exist
a school of futsal that would start from the
beginning with the futsal practice. The majority of
futsal players at first goes through the soccer
schools and after that they are exposed to the to
the futsal training.
Milanović, Z. et al.: Differences in agility performance between futsal and soccer... Sport Science 4 (2011) 2: 55-59
58
The second explanation could be found in the fact
that in the modern soccer practice the small-sided
games, which represent one sort of futsal, are often
used. Such activities are all performed on the
shortened space where the ratio of players is 4 vs
4, 5 vs 5, 5 vs 4, which insist on the strict
surrounding of players. With this type of training
soccer and futsal players are approaching the
movement structure, so that the results obtained in
this study could substantiate that fact. On the other
side SAQ method (Pearson, 2001) become very
familiar for both, futsal and soccer players, and
more often represented in training methodology.
The players have become familiar with the
movement in which is present not only the
acceleration but also the deceleration in
combination with the quick change of direction and
body control (Pearson, 2001). The statement is
enclosed by the research which implies that better
athletes have quicker and more precise reactions
due to their ability to choose anticipated
information (Abernethy, Wann & Parks, 1998)
which extremely important in the course of the
agility test performance. The possession of good
agility performance reduces the injury risk,
enhance sports performance and neutralizes the
opponent or avoids the opponent by using the body
feints (Foran, 2001), that are very frequent in
futsal and soccer. Specifically, it plays an important
role in dribbling in a position where players are in a
situation 1vs1. Agility also contributes to the ability
of successful manipulation of the external object
such as the ball (Foran, 2001).
Conclusion
Based on our results, we can conclude that the
futsal and soccer players differ in the intensity
exertion during the game, but not in motor
activities such as agility. Agility is a very important
component of futsal and soccer and it represents a
common characteristic. Based on that fact it can be
said that the players in this two sports are very
similar in agility performance.
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RAZLIKE U IZVEDBI AGILNOSTI IZMEĐU IGRAČA
FUTSALA I NOGOMETAŠA
Sažetak
Svrha ovog istraživanja bila je utvrđivanje razlika u sposobnosti agilnosti između igrača futsala i nogometa.
Istraživanje je provedeno na uzorku od 82 ispitanika podijeljenih u dvije grupe: 40 futsal igrača (tjelesne
mase 70.39 ± 5.33 kg; visine 176.26 ± 6.85 cm) i 42 nogometaša (tjelesne mase 70.86 ± 5.65 kg; visine
175.42 ± 5.95 cm). Ispitanici su mjereni u slijedećim varijablama: Slalom test (SL), slalom test s loptom
(SLB), Sprint sa 90° promjene pravca (S90°), Sprint sa 90° promjene pravca s loptom (SB90°); Sprint 9-3-
6-3-9 m sa 180° promjene pravca (S180°), Sprint 9-3-6-3-9 m s trčanjem naprijed i natrag (SBF).
Vrijednosti SL i SLB bile su jako slične kod oba uzorka i bez statistički značajne razlike (p > 0.05). Isti
rezultati su bili i u testovima SBF. Za iskazivanje agilnosti također nije bilo razlika. Igrači futsala i nogometa
razlikuju se u intenzitetu opterećenja za vrijeme utakmice, ali ne i u motoričkoj aktivnosti kao što je agilnost.
Agilnost je jako važna za obje vrste sporta i predstavlja zajedničko svojstvo. Temeljeno na toj činjenici može
se zaključiti kako su igrači ovih dvaju sportova vrlo slični u iskazivanju agilnosti.
Ključne riječi:terenski test, futsal, usporedba, momčadski sport
Received: September 27, 2011
Accepted: December 10, 2011
Correspondence to:
Assoc.Prof.Goran Sporiš, PhD
University of Zagreb
Faculty of Kinesiology
Horvaćanski zavoj 15, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Phone: 00385 99 21 21 220
E-mail: gsporis@kif.hr
