COMPARISON OF REACTION SPEED IN JUNIOR ATHLETES AGED 12 TO 16 YEARS ACROSS HANDBALL, VOLLEYBALL, AND TENNIS: A FOCUS ON MANUAL ACTION DOMINANCE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbeag.70.sp.iss.1.07Keywords:
Reaction speed, Manual reaction, Junior athletes, Hand-eye coordinationAbstract
Reaction speed is a critical component of athletic performance, particularly in sports requiring rapid responses to unpredictable stimuli. This study investigated manual reaction speed in junior athletes (aged 12–16) practicing volleyball, handball, and tennis. A total of 150 participants (50 per sport) completed a four-button reaction task, comprising 40 touches per trial, with two repetitions of the test per participant, each trial assessing both left and right hands. Descriptive statistics indicated that tennis players exhibited the fastest mean reaction times (Left: 486.90 ± 52.74 ms; Right: 500.20 ± 49.82 ms), compared with handball (Left: 580.68 ± 62.89 ms; Right: 614.96 ± 60.71 ms) and volleyball athletes (Left: 581.34 ± 64.20 ms; Right: 616.24 ± 58.15 ms). Normality assessments (Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Shapiro–Wilk tests) suggested deviations from normal distribution; consequently, robust Welch ANOVA was employed. Results revealed significant differences across sports for both left-hand (F(2,93.231) = 7.978, p = 0.001) and right-hand reaction times (F(2,94.777) = 9.701, p < 0.001). Post-hoc Games–Howell analyses indicated that tennis athletes outperformed handball and volleyball players, whereas differences between handball and volleyball were negligible. Effect size measures (η² and Cohen’s d) confirmed moderate to large effects for tennis relative to other sports. These findings substantiate the proposition that tennis training enhances manual reaction speed, likely due to sport-specific demands including visuo-motor anticipation, hand-eye coordination, and rapid responses to unpredictable stimuli. The study underscores the relevance of incorporating reaction speed development in youth sports programs, particularly for disciplines necessitating swift decision-making and precise motor execution.
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