The FIFA 11+ does not alter performance in amateur female basketball players-a randomized control trial

The FIFA-Medical and Assessment Research Centre (F-MARC) introduced the warm-up FIFA 11+ program to reduce injuries and promote fair play. Although the FIFA11+ program is a well-established warm-up protocol for injury prevention, studies on the program's performance enhancement aspects have had controversial results. Therefore, the objective of the study is to investigate the efficacy of FIFA11+ program on sports performance parameters such as running speed, agility, and vertical jump performance in amateur female basketball players.

In this study, 59 amateur female basketball players were recruited and randomized into an experimental group (n=30) and a control group (n=29). The experimental group completed the FIFA 11+ program for 12 weeks (three times/week), while the control group members completed their regular training programs. The study adopted a pretest-posttest design. 20-yard sprint run, t test and vertical jump test were the outcome measures.

No statistically significant difference in the sports performance parameters (sprint test p=0.21, t test p=0.16, vertical jump test p=0.09) was found between groups' post-test measurements. The paired sample t test revealed that the 12-week FIFA 11+ program did not demonstrate any significant improvement in the participants' sprint, agility, and vertical jump performance (p>0.05).

The present study showed no enhancement in sports performance parameters such as sprint speed, agility, and vertical jump performance in amateur female basketball players. This lack of improvement in performance measures suggests that the program cannot be used as a training strategy for the targeted sports performance parameters.