Effects of a training program on speed and dribbling in U15 football players in El Marsa, Chlef, Algeria

Football calls on a wide range of individual and collective skills, dribbling, in which a player evades or beats defenders through quick, precise movement on the ball, chief among the individual ones. Training programs are central to how these abilities are built, since they are the vehicle through which players acquire the physical and technical qualities that underpin performance. This study examines the effect of a proposed training program, built around a set of specific physical exercises, on running speed and dribbling skill among U15 football players, by comparing pre-test and post-test scores on both variables after the program's implementation. The study population comprised the 18 players of El Marsa Municipality's U15 football team (Chlef Province, Algeria), from which a purposive sample of 10 players was drawn. Using a one-group, experimental pre-test-post-test

Design: , with a 10-second sprint test for speed and a 21-cone dribbling test for dribbling skill, and paired-samples t-tests following Shapiro-Wilk normality checks, the

Results: showed statistically significant gains in running speed following the program (t = 23.27, p = .000, α = .01), but no statistically significant change in dribbling skill (t = 1.49, p = .16, α = .05). The study concludes that the program's speed-focused exercises were effective, while dribbling improvement likely calls for a training approach placing greater emphasis on motor coordination, repetition, and lower-limb strength specifically