Soccer is the world's game, and keeping athletes healthy while playing the game has often been a focus of study. There is a high occurrence of musculoskeletal injuries reported in soccer. FIFA 11+ was developed as an intervention to help prevent such injuries. FIFA 11+ has previously been studied for its efficacy as an injury prevention program, but not for its effect on sports performance in an adolescent population. The purpose of this study was to look at the effect of implementing the FIFA 11+ intervention on strength, speed, and agility. Twenty youth soccer players were randomly divided into an intervention group (INT) and a control group (CON). The intervention lasted for eight weeks and performance assessments were completed pre- and post-intervention. Post-test INT knee flexor strength was significantly higher than pre-test scores (p < 0.05). INT also demonstrated significantly higher hamstring to quadriceps strength ratio (H/Q) after the intervention (p < 0.05), while the CON H/Q did not change significantly. 30-m sprint performance of both groups improved from pre- to post-test (p < 0.05). Shuttle run performance was significantly improved in post-test scores for INT players (p < 0.05), but did not change significantly for the CON players. It is suggested that implementing FIFA 11+ before training in young soccer players can lead to performance benefits as well as injury prevention benefits.
Keywords: FIFA 11+; H/Q; injury prevention; performance; youth soccer.