Ryan, ChloeUthoff, AaronMcKenzie, ChloeCronin, John2024-03-272024-03-272024-02-14European Journal of Sport Science, ISSN: 1746-1391 (Print); 1536-7290 (Online), Wiley. doi: 10.1002/ejsc.120811746-13911536-7290http://hdl.handle.net/10292/17388The aim of this study was to determine the acute effects of wearable resistance forearm (WRf) loading versus shank (WRs) loading on change of direction (COD) performance in netball athletes. Ten elite female netball athletes (age: 24.9 ± 5.0 years, height: 180.1 ± 6.5 cm, weight: 81.3 ± 15.0 kg) participated in this within‐subject repeated measures study under three conditions: (1) no load (NL), (2) WRs and (3) WRf, both wearable resistance conditions loaded with 1% body mass on each limb. Athletes performed a modified 5‐0‐5 COD test with additional timing splits and inertial measurement units placed in their shoes. Total time was significantly longer for both WR conditions with a small effect compared to NL (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> &lt; 0.05, ES = 0.22–0.25). The greatest differences between WRs and WRf as compared to NL were in the acceleration phase with moderate effect sizes (0–2 m) (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> &lt; 0.05, ES = −0.67–0.79). Both loading conditions had moderate to large significant effects on peak deceleration (ES = 0.56–0.82) and maximum speed (ES = −0.50–0.60). No significant differences were observed between WR conditions. It appeared that WRs and WRs acutely affected COD performance and therefore might provide a potential training stimulus to elicit positive COD performance adaptations if used over an extended period of time. The choice of overload depended on the musculature that needed training.© 2024 The Authors. European Journal of Sport Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH on behalf of European College of Sport Science. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/42 Health Sciences4207 Sports Science and Exercise0913 Mechanical Engineering1106 Human Movement and Sports SciencesSport Sciences4207 Sports science and exercise5201 Applied and developmental psychologyJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1002/ejsc.12081