<![CDATA[Heading is an essential football skill that contributes to both offensive and defensive play. However, the heading performance of U-13 athletes at SSB Bintang Timur Boyolali remained relatively low, and limited evidence has compared the effectiveness of hanging ball and barrier hops training methods. This study aimed to examine the differences in the effects of these two training methods on heading skills. A quantitative experimental approach with a pretest–posttest design was employed. Thirty U-13 athletes were selected using purposive sampling and divided into two groups through ordinal pairing. Each group completed 16 training sessions over six weeks. Data were analyzed using reliability, normality, homogeneity, and t-tests at a 5% significance level. The findings revealed that both training methods significantly improved heading skills. The hanging ball group improved by 18.28%, while the barrier hops group improved by 51.29%. The posttest analysis showed a significant difference between groups (t = 8.089 > t-table = 2.048), indicating that barrier hops was more effective. These findings suggest that barrier hops is a suitable training alternative for improving heading performance by enhancing lower-limb explosive power in youth football athletes.]]>
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