510 Can Change of Direction Speed and Reactive Agility Differentiate Female Hockey Players? Bradley Morland 1 , Lindsay Bottoms 1 , Jonathan Sinclair 2 and Nicholas Bourne 1 1. School of Health, Sport and Bioscience, University of East London, London, UK. 2. Division of Sport Exercise and Nutritional Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK Abstract This study investigated whether pre-planned change of direction speed (CODS) and reactive agility (RA) of teenage female field hockey players could distinguish playing standard and whether they could be used to predict standard of play. Ten female school/club (SCHOOL) standard players (age 16.9 ± 0.7 yrs) and ten female regional performance centre (REGIONAL) standard players (age 17.0 ± 0.7 yrs) underwent a series of sprints involving change of direction through an electronically timed course under three conditions, 1. pre-planned change of direction (PRE); 2. change of direction initiated by reaction to a light source (LIGHT); 3. change of direction initiated by reaction to a hockey specific stimulus (HOCK). Each participant completed four trials in each condition with the best time used for analysis. REGIONAL players completed the HOCK test more quickly than the SCHOOL players (P=0.05), whereas there were no differences between the groups in the other tests. Logistical regression analysis found that none of the tests could be used as a predictor for standard of play. Although a sports specific agility test was performed quicker by REGIONAL players it was not able to predict standard of play and therefore further development is needed for an efficient sports specific test. Key words: Hockey, agility, reactive agility, change of direction speed, female 1. Introduction Agility has been described as vitally important to performance in sport, providing a foundation for motor-skills and neuromuscular control and establishing a broad athletic ability (Vescovi, 2006). Along with balance and co-ordination, agility is recognised as a fundamental component of early years’ athletic development and as such is incorporated within participant development plans such as the Long Term Athlete Development Plan (LTAD) (Balyi & Hamilton, 2004). LTAD is a staged development process linking development and coaching of sports persons to their physical and psychological International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport 2013, 13, 510-521.