Pre adolescence is a stage of development characterized by great physiological changes in the musculoskeletal and neuromuscular systems. Physiological adaptations in preadolescents after physical training may therefore be expected to be different compared with adults. Despite this, previous studies have shown that young athletes trained with adult-training methods are able to improve sprint performance.
Rather than use adult-training methods, some authors have suggested to train children (9 to 13) using only coordination training, as in this age range the neuromuscular adaptations are easy to improve.3 Despite this suggestion, it is not known whether coordination training is superior to other types of training for improving technical skills (such as sprinting with ball) and physical performance (such as sprint without ball and jump height), which have been suggested to be important for talent identification in preadolescent soccer players.4 The purpose of this preliminary study therefore was to investigate, in preadolescent soccer players, the effects of coordination or repeated-sprint training on speed, with and without a ball, and jump height.