Effects of Skill Training on the Sprint Performance of Secondary School Athletes

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of skill training on sprint performance of secondary school athletes. Purposive sampling was used to select Model Secondary School, Nsukka. Thirteen (13) athletes of the chosen secondary school participated in the study, eight (8) male and five (5) female athletes. The quasi-experimental research design was adopted for this study. The instruments for data collection were a training schedule prepared by the researchers and a stopwatch. The analysis of the data was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) batch system version 21. The data collected were analysed and presented in tables. The statistical tools used were mean, standard deviation and the null hypotheses were tested using ANCOVA. The subjects recorded a residual score of 0.75s for the return time and 0.655ms-1 for speed which indicates an improvement on the return time and the speed respectively. There was a significant difference in the mean pre-test and post-test scores based on gender. The study concludes that skill training improved the sprint performance of athletes, it is considered paramount for successful performance and further recommends that student-athletes should be properly trained before enrolling in any competition.