The Effect of Agility Ladder Drills on Increasing the Speed of

Dribbling a Ball for Male Football Players at the Age of 13 to 15 at

Mahavajiravudh School in Songkhla Province

Witsnu Rotsuwan

, Wilaipin Kaeopheng

Student, Physical Education Program, Faculty of Education, Thaksin University

Lecturer, Physical Education and Health Education Program, Faculty of Education, Thaksin University

Keywords: Agility Ladder Drill, Football Player

Abstract: The purpose of this research were (1) to examine the effect of the agility ladder drills on increasing the

speed of dribbling a ball for the male football players at the age of 13 to 15 at Mahavajiravudh School in

SongkhlaProvince and (2) to compare the level of speed in dribbling the ball of those players before and

after the agility ladder drills. It was found that the agility ladder drills played a significant role in easing

the dribbling of a ball for the male football players at Mahavajiravudh School in Songkhla Province. In

the process of testing, the 20 football players were required to dribble a ball through a 12 meter-long

speed track with 12 cones placed along the tract. Before applying the ladder drills, the average time

spent in dribbling a ball across the ladder for the 20 players was 3 minutes. The significant change in the

time spent in dribbling a ball across the track was found after 8 weeks of agility ladder drills whereby

the better average time of 1.95 minutes was recorded. In addition, it was also found that the football

players with the body weight between 36 and 40 kilograms made the most outstanding improvement in

their dribbling time. From the average of 3 minutes before the ladder drills application, they managed to

make it 1.75 minutes after the drills. The significant improvement in dribbling a ball of the players after

going through the agility ladder drills was at .05 levels.

1 INTRODUCTION

In Thailand, football is considered one of the most

popular sports. A number of young people have

made football their regular sport for exercise and

professional purposes. In order to train football

players, it is obviously necessary for all trainers to

come up with training methods to enhance skills and

physical fitness of the players to achieve their goal

in competitions. Aside from the physical health and

professional benefits, football could also enhance

unity due to the fact that football relies on a team

effort in which all the players need to synchronize

their latent and skills both in practice sessions and in

actual competitions. This togetherness leads to unity

which in turn enhances the way their live their life

with other members in the society (Toopbhucha,

2015).

A speed ladder is supposed to be one of the many

sport equipment available in supposedly enhancing

agility in short distance among athletes. It is known

to be one of the best devices to enhance the effective

co-functioning of the nervous system and physical

movements. Having been engaged in this type of

drill for a good period of time could enhance the

agility of a player in doing any sport.

This study tried to make use of agility ladder

drills among the football players with the hope to

increase the speed in dribbling a ball which could

put them into more advantageous situation over their

opponents during games. It was expected that

through proper and well-designed ladder drills, the

players could therefore be more proficient in their

ball-dribbling skills which could therefore enhance

the speed on doing such function at the field. The

study was therefore conducted with a selected group

of young football players at the age of 13 to 15 from

Mahavajiravudh School in Songkhla Province to

prove the idea.

Conceptual framework: According to an

extensive review of the literature in using agility

ladder drills on increasing the ease of dribbling a

Rotsuwan, W. and Kaeopheng, W.

The Effect of Agility Ladder Drills on Increasing the Speed of Dribbling a Ball for Male Football Players at the Age of 13 to 15 at Mahavajiravudh School in Songkhla Province.

DOI: 10.5220/0009800906790683

In Proceedings of the 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science in conjunction with the 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports

(YISHPESS and CoIS 2019), pages 679-683

ISBN: 978-989-758-457-2

679

ball for the football players, a conceptual framework

can be drawn as follows.

Figure 1: Independent variable Dependent variable

This study was aimed at pursuing the following

objectives: 1) To study the effect of agility ladder

drills on increasing the ease and speed of dribbling a

ball for the male football players who were 13 to 15

years of age. 2) To compare the level of speed in

dribbling a ball of the male football players before

and after going through the agility ladder drills

2 RESEARCH METHOD

2.1 Research Type

This study used an experimental research method to

compare the level of speed in dribbling a ball of the

male football players before and after going through

the agility ladder drills. The conduct of the study

followed the following guidelines: 1) The

orientation was conducted to make sure all 20

football players were aware of all the details

regarding research objectives, how to go on handling

the agility ladder drills, things to do and be aware

during the drills, and necessary requirements

throughout the entire process; 2) The eight-week

practice phase involved getting the players to

undergo the agility ladder drills 30 minutes per

session, three sessions (Monday, Wednesday, and

Friday) per weeks; 3) The assessment step was taken

in which the 20 football players were required to

dribble a ball through a 12 meter-long track with 12

cones placed along. The first (pre-test) assessment

was done right in the beginning of the program and

the other (post-test) was done after 8 weeks of

practice; 4) The researcher controlled and kept

records of all the speeds gained by each of the

player.

2.2 Data, Instrument, Data Collection

Technique

2.2.1 Agility Ladder Drills

1 Single-Foot Run: a quick and light run

through the ladder with one foot in each

square

2 Two-Foot Run: Basic run, single foot in each

box and two feet in each box run

3 Jumping Jack Feet: Two feet jump together in

a square, and then jump out while moving

down the ladder

4 Squat: Standing in the first square of the

ladder, feet shoulder-width apart. Jump

forward one square, spreading legs wide to

land in a squat with one foot on each side of

the ladder. Quickly jump to the next square,

landing with both feet inside the ladder.

5 Crossover: a sideways run with one foot

touching in each box

6 Lateral In, In, Out, Out: Start by facing the

side of ladder with two feet touching in and

out from the side of each box, following a 4

count of “In, In, Out, Out.

7 Lateral Shuffle: Standing with ladder on left

side, laterally step the left foot into the first

square, and laterally step the right foot into

the first square. Then, laterally step the left

foot into the second square, followed by the

right foot. Repeat the steps until the end of

ladder is reached.

8 Single Foot Hops: Standing in front of the

ladder. Lift left foot off the ground then hop

forward through the squares on the right foot.

At the end of the ladder, run backward to the

start and repeat.

2.2.2 Football Dribbling Test

Objective: To assess the speed in dribbling a ball

Equipment

1. A ball

2. Lime powder for grass field and a tape for

artificial grass field

3. Two markers

4. Measuring tape

5. Notepad

6. Ten cones

Dribbling test procedures

1. Having heard the start sound signal, a player

starts dribbling a ball in a zigzag direction

Agility ladder drills

Ease of dribbling a

ball for the football

players

YISHPESS and CoIS 2019 - The 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science (YISHPESS

2019) in conjunction with The 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports (CoIS 2019)

680

along the track trying not to hit the cones

placed along the track.

2. Upon reaching the other ends of the track,

dribbling the ball back to the starting point

with speed in a straight line.

3. Having completely returned to the starting

point, the researcher records the time spent

for the whole process.

Dribbling test requirements

1. The player has to dribble the ball in a zigzag

direction through each gap between the cones

without skipping any of them.

2. In case of hitting the cones, continue

dribbling the ball without stopping.

3. If the ball gets off track in an uncontrolled

manner, the player can catch the ball and put

it back on the track and continue dribbling.

Marking criteria (dribbling time)

Less than 20 minutes = 3 marks

21 to 25 minutes = 2 marks

26 to 30 minutes = 1 mark

More than 30 minutes = o mark

3 RESEARCH RESULT AND

DISCUSSION

Table 1 describes the Frequencies and percentages

of each type of information of the participants who

were 20 football players. They were all male at the

age of 13. All of them weighed between 41 to 45

kilograms and most of them (30 percent) were

between 151 to 155 centimeters tall.

In the first test, the average speed in dribbling a ball

along the track was recorded at 3 minutes. Having

gone through 8 weeks of agility ladder drills, the

significant improvement was recorded in the second

round of the test in which, on average, the players

took only 1.95 minutes to complete the task.



Table 1: Frequencies and percentages of each type of information of the participants

General information

Number(persons

)

percentage

Sex

Male

Female

100

Age

13 years of age

14 years of age

15 years of age

100

Weight

30 to 35kilograms

36 to 40kilograms

41 to 45kilograms

46 to 50kilograms

20.0

55.0

25.5

Height

130 to135 centimeters

136 to140 centimeters

141to 145 centimeters

146 to150 centimeters

151 to155 centimeters

156 to160 centimeters

161 to165 centimeters

10.0

30.0

25.0

20.0

15.0

Total 20 100

Table 2: The overall average time spent in dribbling a ball

before and after the agility ladder drills.

Test N

Test1 20 3.00

Test2 20 1.95

The dependent Sample t-tests were employed in

the second part of the analysis to identify the

differences of the average time spent in dribbling a

ball in Test 1 (before applying the agility ladder

drills) and that that in Test 2 (after applying the

agility ladder drills) in relation to certain factors.

The Effect of Agility Ladder Drills on Increasing the Speed of Dribbling a Ball for Male Football Players at the Age of 13 to 15 at

Mahavajiravudh School in Songkhla Province

681

Table 3: The differences of the average time spent in

dribbling a ball before and after the agility ladder drills in

relation to the weights of the participants.

Weight N

S.D. t Sig

36 to 40 kg 4 1.75 0.00

0.358 .000**41 to 45 kg 11 3.00 0.50

46 to 50 k

5 3.00 0.50

*significantat0.05levels,**significantat0.01levels

This part highlights the analysis of the

differences of the average time spent in dribbling a

ball along the track before and after going through

the agility ladder drills in relation to the different

weights of the football players. There were 3 groups

of football players: 36 to 40, 41 to 45, and 46 to 50

kilograms, respectively. It was found that the 36 to

40 year old group surpassed all other groups in their

improvement in the speed of dribbling a ball along

the ladder after the 8-week training.

3.1 Research Result

The average speed in dribbling a ball of the football

players along the track significantly improved from

3 minutes before the training to the average of 1.95

minutes after 8 weeks of agility ladder drills.

The individual variable like the weight played a

crucial part in determining the speed the players

dribbling the ball along the track in which the 36 to

40 kilograms group showed the most significant

improvement in their improvement of the dribbling a

ball speed along the track after the 8 week training,

while other variables did not show any significant

improvement.

3.2 Discussion

The examination of the effect of the agility ladder

drills on increasing the ease or speed of dribbling a

ball for the male football players at the age of 13 to

15 at Mahavajiravudh School in Songkhla Province

has found that the agility ladder drills played a

significant role in easing the dribbling of a ball for

the male football players. The results of this study

confirmed the hypothesis about the benefits the

ladder drills have on the football players’ agility

when being trained on the well-designed program

for the appropriate length of time and conducted in

accordance with the physical fitness guidelines. The

players tended to enhance reaction time or latency

and agility in executing any physical movements

after the completion of the ladder drills.

The results were in line with those of Wechapat

and Palawiwat (1993) who suggested that in any

agility drills, it is necessary to take into account the

effective co-functioning of nervous system and

muscles, muscle strength, time for reaction time,

flexibility, and speed. Moreover, individual

variables like body type, age, and sex as well as

other related factors like obesity, fatigue, and time

for the drills were also found to play the main part in

agility enhancement. The findings from this study

were also in accordance with those of Chanaparn

(2007) in which he found the significant (.05 levels)

positive impact of agility drills on the speed of

dribbling a ball among 12 to 14 year old football

players.

4 RECOMMENDATION

The agility ladder drills have been proven to

enhance reaction time or latency and agility in

executing any physical movements. These types of

drill could be applied in other sports or training

programs.

Apart from the agility ladder drills, it is

recommended to try looking into other training

programs in enhancing football handling skills and

investigate their outcomes in comparison to the

ladder drills.

For more complete picture of the effect of

theagility ladder drills, it is recommended that the

training program takes into account the age

difference of the players and see if the impact will

still be positive with other age groups.

REFERENCES

Chaiyot and Klanarong. 2016. The effect of ladder drills

and PVC fence on football players’ agility. Education

Journal. Prince of Songkhla University, Pattani

Campus, 27(2), 79-88

Damtoe. 2011. The effect of Plyometric training on

football players’ agility. M.Ed. Master Thesis.

Thaksin University.

Sutthisaha. 1998. Strategic Management to Outstanding

Football Coaching. Bangkok: Thai Watanapanich.

Thoopbucha. 2015. The effect of agility drills on the speed

in dribbling a ball among 16 to 18 year - old male

football players. Journal of Graduate Studies, Northern

Rajabhat Universities, 5 (8), 131-142

Uubchanto. 2015. The effect of an integration of ladder

drills and Thai traditional plays on futsal players’

agility, speed, and reaction. M.Sc. Thesis.

Mahasarakham University.

YISHPESS and CoIS 2019 - The 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science (YISHPESS

2019) in conjunction with The 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports (CoIS 2019)

682

Wechapapaet and Palawiwat. 1993. Exercise Physiology.

Bangkok: Physiology Department.Mahidol

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The Effect of Agility Ladder Drills on Increasing the Speed of Dribbling a Ball for Male Football Players at the Age of 13 to 15 at

Mahavajiravudh School in Songkhla Province

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