A Novel Method to Measure Dual Task Capacity in Young Football Players: A Preliminary Study

Context: When deciding to return to sport, literature usually uses evaluations based on physical abilities. But, current literature urges us to use more than physical performance evaluations. Classical dual-task testing methods do not simulate in-game loads and cannot sufficiently measure football players' dual-task capacity.

Objective: The purpose of our study was to create a dual-task test that would simulate football players' in- game situations and measure their capacity.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Football Pitch.

Participants: Twenty-two football players (aged 17.37±0.52 years) who played in a professional club (U19, elite league) were recruited for our study.

Interventions: Novel dual task test with questions containing scenarios from a football game to cognitively load players, while they are performing modified t-test.

Main outcome measures: After the warm-up period, participants attended four tests in random order: juggling (foot) test, speed dribbling test, long passing test, and 'novel dual-task test'.

Results: There was no significant relationship between physical performance parameters and dual task parameters (all ps>0.05). There was a significant increase in the completion time of modified t-test when performed under dual task condition (Z=-7.568, p<0.001). The increase in completion time was found as 2.14±1.29 seconds. This duration difference was calculated as 22.79±14.58%, as dual task cost.

Conclusions: Our test provides a new method to measure athletes' dual task capacity, which is not related to physical performance and cannot be measured with current tests. This test also showed players with lower dual task ability could not keep up their performance under dual task conditions, such as passing a ball to a team-mate when being pressed by an opponent. Players with good dual task ability could maintain 1 their performance (got affected only up to 10%); players with poor dual task ability could not maintain their performance and got affected by up to 50% (with a mean of 22.79%).