Do Sport-Specific Demands Shape Coordinative Abilities a Cross-Sectional Comparison of Adolescent Football and Cricket Players in Dhaka, Bangladesh
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Abstract
Background: Coordinative abilities underpin youth skill acquisition, but whether the contrasting demands of football and cricket produce distinct coordinative profiles during adolescence is unknown, particularly in South Asia.
Objective: To compare orientation, reaction, rhythm, balance and kinaesthetic differentiation abilities between adolescent football and cricket players in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and to quantify the magnitude and precision of any differences.
Methods: In this cross-sectional comparative study, 50 male athletes aged 13–16 years (football n = 25; cricket n = 25) who trained and resided at the same institution completed five standardised field tests, one for each ability. Groups were compared with independent-samples t-tests (α = .05), Hedges’ g with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), two one-sided equivalence tests (bounds ±0.5 SD) and a sensitivity power analysis.
Results: No between-group difference was statistically significant (all p ≥ .211). Standardised differences were small for orientation (g = 0.35, 95% CI −0.20 to 0.90), rhythm (0.35, −0.20 to 0.90) and balance (0.33, −0.22 to 0.88), and trivial for reaction (0.14, −0.41 to 0.68) and differentiation (−0.03, −0.57 to 0.52). Equivalence within ±0.5 SD could not be established for any ability (TOST p = .050–.310). With 25 players per group, only differences of d ≥ 0.81 were detectable with 80% power.
Conclusion: Adolescent football and cricket players sharing one training environment showed broadly similar generic coordinative abilities, but the data cannot exclude small-to-moderate sport-related differences. Coaches should treat generic coordination tests as indicators of shared movement foundations rather than sport-discriminating tools, and larger, maturity-adjusted studies are needed.
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