Effect of Filipino Dodgeball Competition on Agility, Speed, and Special Endurance of University Students: A One-Class Experiment

Dodgeball is gaining popularity as a recreational sport worldwide. While the Philippines has a strong sports culture, much has focused on more traditional sports such as basketball, volleyball, and athletics. This study evaluates the effect of Filipino dodgeball game on agility, speed, and special endurance of university students and examines the sex difference based on the results. Forty-eight undergraduate students enrolled in the Physical Activity Towards Health and Fitness (PATHFIT) 2 course in the same program and had no existing medical condition participated in the study. Using a nonrandomized trial involving two groups, utilizing pre- and post-tests, the study spanned three phases: (i) one week dedicated to pre-testing and a dry run game for familiarization; (ii) an eight-week game competition; and (iii) one week for post-testing. Similar procedures were applied in both tests. The results showed that the 8-week dodgeball competition significantly influenced the speed, agility, and endurance of participants (p ≤ 0.0001). The agility of male participants greatly improved compared to females (p ≤0.05). Meanwhile, the speed of female participants significantly improved compared to male participants (p ≤ 0.001). The improvement in special endurance shows no significant difference between the groups (p ≥ 0.05). The proponents of this study encourage physical educators at the tertiary level to include dodgeball competitions in the course curriculum to improve the physical performance and activity participation of their students as required in PATHFIT courses.