Displacement speed profile in youth soccer players from Boyacá-Colombia

Introduction: soccer in Boyaca-Colombia has not presented the best results in national competitions. Multiple factors may explain the reason for these results. Objective: characterize the speed of movement in football players from Boyaca. Methodology: the speed of movement was analyzed as a specific factor of sports performance in football, due to the need to travel short distances, make changes in orientation, pace and sudden accelerations. For this reason, it was decided to do it through the Illinois Test, with the measurement with Witty microgate photocells, for greater accuracy in the data, as an added value. The test was applied to 155 youth soccer players from clubs with participation in national tournaments and in Boyaca national team calls, with an age of 17.2 +/- 0.8 years, weight of 58.4 +/- 1.6 kg, BMI of 14.2 +/- 2.5, and height of 166 +/- 0.8 cm. Results: 80% of the sample is on the Excellent scale, 15.5% Regular and 4.5% Average. Although a positive result was obtained with respect to the speed of movement, it would be advisable to modify the way of evaluating it, for example, modifying the test to evaluate the speed of movement with the driving of the ball, which would imply first validating the test. Conclusions: the results indicate that the shortcomings in the sporting performance of the players and teams are not due to deficiencies in the evaluated capacity. This leaves the field open for future research that investigates other capabilities, technical, tactical and psychological aspects, among others.