Adolescent female soccer players’ soccer-specific warm-up effects on performance and inter-limb asymmetries

No studies have assessed whether changes in physical performance and inter-limb asymmetries (ILA) can be achieved with the FIFA 11+ prevention programme in adolescent female soccer players. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of the FIFA 11+ programme compared with a standard warm-up on physical performance and ILA in adolescent female soccer players. Thirty-six adolescent female soccer players were randomly assigned to an experimental (EG; n = 19) or a control group (CG; n = 17). Unilateral/bilateral countermovement jump (CMJ), drop jump (DJ) and horizontal jump tests, two different change of direction tests, an ankle dorsiflexion test, the Y-Balance test (YBT) and inter-limb asymmetries were measured before and after 10 weeks of training. The results revealed no significant group-by-time interactions in the vast majority of variables (p>0.05). Paired t-test revealed significant improvements of the right [effect size (ES):0.56] and left (ES:0.49) CMJ, right (ES:0.74) and left (ES:0.54) DJ (ES:0.74), right (ES:1.27) and left (ES:1.26) posteromedial direction and right (ES:0.89) and left (ES:0.84) posterolateral direction in the YBT in the EG (p < 0.05). Right anterior direction in the YBT and V-cut test were significantly improved in both groups (p