Sánchez Sánchez, JavierGarcía Unanue, Jorge FernandoHernando, H.López Fernández, JorgeUbago Guisado, EstherColino Acevedo, EnriqueLeón Jiménez, ManuelGallardo Guerrero, Leonor2020-03-172020-03-172018Sánchez Sánchez, J., García Unanue, J. F., Hernando, H., López Fernández, J., Ubago Guisado, E., Colino Acevedo, E., León, M., & Gallardo Guerrero, L. (2018). Influence of age on performance in a repeated sprint test in young soccer players. In Book of abstracts: 23rd Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science. European College of Sport Science.9783981841411http://hdl.handle.net/11268/8779Previous studies have shown that the ability to recover and reproduce the performance in repeated sprints is a specific requirement of football physical fitness. The Repeated Sprint Ability (RSA) test has demonstrated to be a discriminatory variable between professional and amateur footballers. However, few studies have analyzed its effect on different age categories in terms of performance and fatigue. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyze the influence of age on performance in a repeated sprint test in young soccer players. METHODS: A total of 62 amateur young football players from 3 different age categories (U14, n=21; U16, n=20; and U18, n=21) participated in the study. Subjects were recruited from an elite football academy, with which was signed an agreement for the realization of this study. The RSA test Included 7 repetitive 30-meters long sprints with 20 seconds of recovery between them. Four pairs of photocells (Witty, Microgate, Bolzano, Italy) placed in 0, 5, 25 and 30 m assessed the performance in this test. The best time of sprint (RSABEST), the mean time (RSAMEAN), the total time (RSATT), the percentage of decreasing (RSADEC) and the difference between the best and worst sprint during the RSA test (RSACHANGE) were calculated. Two-way ANOVA and Bonferroni post-hoc test was used to analyse the differences in RSA time (age category x sprint number). Results: The analysis of the RSA test according to the category revealed greater sprint times in the U14 players throughout the complete test and all the sections analyzed (p <0.01). Differences were greater in the 30-m sprint analysis (ES: U14 vs. U16: 0.92-3.17, U14 vs. U18: 1.11-4.08). However, the comparison between U16 and U18 did not show any significant difference (p> 0.05), except a lower RSABEST in U18 (- 0.122 s, ES: 1.09, 95% CI: -0.236 to -0.008, p = 0.031). The deterioration of the performance with respect to the first sprint in the analysis of the 30-meter RSA test is evident from the fifth sprint in all the categories analyzed (p <0.01), although the RSADEC and the RSACHANGE were not significantly different between age categories (p> 0.05). CONCLUSION: The ability to repeat sprints is differs according to age. Therefore, the results of the RSA test can constitute a discriminatory variable of the age category of the soccer player. However, the deterioration of performance in the RSA test was independent of the age category.engconference outputrestricted accessFutbolistasEdad adultaFisiología humanaAtletaGrupo de edadEfectos fisiológicos