Enhancing youth male basketball players’ performance: A comparative study of the basketball-adjusted FIFA 11 + kids warm-up and differential learning approach on basketball key performance indicators agility, jump and sprint

This randomized controlled study aimed to examine the effects of a six-week Differential Learning (DL)-based adaptation of the FIFA 11+ Kids warm-up program on selected physical performance outcomes, including agility, sprint speed, and jump performance in youth male basketball players (mean age = 13.2 ± 0.8 years). A pre-post test design was used, with twenty participants randomly assigned to either a basketball-adjusted FIFA 11+ Kids (BB-adjusted FIFA 11+ Kids) group or a DL-based warm-up group. Bayesian repeated-measures ANOVAs, along with Bayesian independent- and paired-samples t-tests, were conducted to evaluate between- and within-group changes. Between-group analyses showed inconclusive evidence for differences in sprint (BF 10 = 0.41), agility without the basketball (BF 10 = 0.55), agility with the basketball (BF 10 = 0.54), and jump performance (BF 10 = 0.40). Bayesian evidence indicated comparable pre-to-post improvements in both groups across all performance measures. These results suggest that a short-term DL-based warm-up results in comparable performance outcomes to the basketball-adjusted version FIFA 11+ Kids program. Future research should investigate whether extending DL-based approaches beyond an acute warm-up context, such as implementing them across training periods longer than six weeks and including retention testing, affects performance outcomes in youth athletes. In addition, examining different levels and types of variability (e.g., geometric versus dynamic noise) may help clarify context-dependent effects of DL-based warm-ups.