Quantification of External Training Load among Elite-Level Goalkeepers within Competitive Microcycle

This study aimed to evaluate the external training load (ETL) of elite-level goalkeepers considering days before match day (MD minus) and playing status in subsequent matches. The ETL of three goalkeepers from the Croatian highest national football competition were analyzed, quantifying goalkeeping-specific physical performance variables (i.e., distances covered, acceleration frequencies, dives, jumps). Data were collected using a 10 Hz global-positioning system and 100 Hz accelerometer technology (Vector G7, Catapult Sports Ltd., Melbourne, Australia) from 67 training sessions. Significant daily differences for almost all physical performance variables were found (all small-to-medium effect sizes (ESs)). Specifically, total distance, total and high-intensity dives, high-intensity accelerations and decelerations, and explosive efforts were greatest on MD-3 and lowest on MD-2 and MD-1. Nonstarters performed more medium jumps on MD-4 (large ES); low jumps on MD-3 (medium ES); total, right-, and left-side dives and low jumps on MD-2 (all small-to-medium ESs); and left-side dives and low and medium jumps on MD-1 (all small-to-medium ESs) compared to the starters. These findings demonstrated that (i) elite-level goalkeepers experienced the greatest ETL on MD-3 and the lowest on MD-2 and MD-1 and that (ii) starters’ and nonstarters’ ETLs were similar on MD-4 and MD-3, while nonstarters compared to the starters presented slightly greater ETLs on MD-2 and MD-1. This study highlighted the differing daily training demands placed on elite-level goalkeepers, offering valuable insights for their preparation

Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Kinanthropology

Proceedings of the 12th Conference of Sport and Quality of Life 2019 gatheres submissions of participants of the conference. Every submission is the result of positive evaluation by reviewers from the corresponding field. Conference is divided into sections – Analysis of human movement; Sport training, nutrition and regeneration; Sport and social sciences; Active ageing and sarcopenia; Strength and conditioning training; section for PhD students

Reliability, Validity and Sensitivity of Newly Developed Tennis-Specific Reactive Agility Tests

Agility is one of the motor skills on which success in tennis performance depends, and the aim of this research was the development and validation of a new test for assessing preplanned and reactive agility in young tennis players. The sample of respondents comprised 50 young competitors with an average age of 12.34 ± 1.22 years who were ranked up to 50th in the national tennis association ranking and up to 300th in the international Tennis Europe ranking. Agility variables were measured with newly constructed tests for the assessment of preplanned agility (CODS) and reactive agility (RAG), which were constructed in such a way that subjects imitated specific movements in tennis. It can be concluded that the newly constructed tests of preplanned agility (CODS) and reactive agility (RAG) have a high degree of reliability. Additionally, the assumption that the reliability will be slightly higher for preplanned agility tests (CA = 0.92 and 0.92; ICC = 0.86 and 0.82) than for reactive agility tests (CA = 0.90 and 0, 89; ICC = 0.74 and 0.72) was proven to be accurate. The results also showed that the tests have satisfactory validity. Thus, the results of both tests show a good correlation (p = 0.6 and p = 0.55) with the T-test of agility. It can be noted that all measurements, that is, all results, are normally distributed and that the values of skewness and kurtosis are within acceptable limits. We can confirm satisfactory sensitivity and their applicability to the sample of young tennis players. In conclusion, the results of this research confirmed the hypothesis and showed that the newly constructed agility tests have extremely good metric characteristics, especially the reactive agility test. Thus, this paper proposed a new procedure for the assessment of preplanned and reactive agility in young tennis players, which will significantly improve and advance the existing procedures, and make the results more reliable and precise

The Effects of Biological Age on Speed-Explosive Properties in Young Tennis Players

Biological maturity can affect performance on motor tests, thus young players can have advantages or disadvantages during testing by being more or less mature than their peers of the same chronological age. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of biological age on speed, agility, and explosive power in young tennis players. Fifty tennis players (age 12.3 ± 1.2 years, height 156.7 ± 12.8 cm, body mass 45.9 ± 8.9 kg) who were ranked up to 50th place in the ranking of the National Tennis Association, as well as up to 300th place on the international “Tennis Europe” ranking, participated in the study. They were divided into three groups according to their maturation status, that is, the peak height velocity (PHV) maturity offset: pre-PHV [n = 10); circa-PHV [0 to 1] (n = 10); and post-PHV [>1.5] (n = 25). They performed tests of speed (5, 10, and 20 m sprints), agility (20 yards, 4 × 10 yards, T-test, TENCODS, and TENRAG), and explosive power (countermovement jump, one-leg countermovement jump, squat jump, long jump, and one-leg triple jump). Results showed significantly higher height of the vertical jump in the post-PHV group compared to the pre-PHV group, in the range of ~16% to ~27%. Moreover, linear and change of direction speed was significantly faster in the post-PHV group compared to the pre-PHV group, in the range of ~5% to ~8%. Height of the squat jump and speed in the T-test were significantly better in the post-PHV group compared to the circa-PHV group, in the range of ~7% to ~15%, while height of the single-leg triple jump was significantly higher in the circa-PHV group compared to the pre-PHV group by ~7%. This study showed that tennis players of older biological age achieve better results in almost all variables of speed, agility, and explosive power compared to players of younger biological age. Coaches should be aware of the differences found in physical performance and consider the practical implications that maturation can have in the long-term development of young tennis players

Predictors of Reactive Agility in Early Puberty: A Multiple Regression Gender-Stratified Study

Reactive agility (RAG) is a crucial factor of success in sports, but there are practically no studies dealing with RAG among children. The main aim of this study was to identify predictors of RAG among early pubescent boys and girls. The participants were primary school boys (n = 73) and girls (n = 59) aged 11–12. The criterion variable was the originally developed “Triangle” test of reactive agility (Triangle-RAG). Predictors included anthropometric/body composition indices (body height, seated height, body mass, and body fat percentage) and motor abilities (10 and 20 m sprint, broad jump, squat jump, countermovement jump, drop jump, and two tests of change of direction speed—CODS (Triangle-CODS, and 20 yards)). The results of the univariate analysis showed that anthropometric/body composition indices were not significantly correlated to TRAG (0–4% of the common variance), while all motor abilities were significantly associated with TRAG (7–43% of the common variance) in both genders. Among boys, 64% of the TRAG variance was explained by multiple regression, with TCODS as the only significant predictor. Among girls, multiple regression explained 59% of the TRAG-variance with TCODS, countermovement jump, and drop jump as significant predictors. Differences in multivariate results between genders can be explained by (i) greater involvement in agility-saturated sports (i.e., basketball, tennis, soccer) in boys, and (ii) advanced maturity status in girls. The lack of association between anthropometric/body built and TRAG was influenced by the short duration of the TRAG (3.54 ± 0.4 s). Our findings suggest that pre-pubescent and early pubescent children should be systematically trained on basic motor abilities to achieve fundamentals for further developing RAG. Since in this study we observed predictors including only athletic abilities and anthropometric/body composition, in future studies, other motor abilities, as well as cognitive, perceptual, and decision-making parameters as potential predictors of RAG in children should be investigated

Fitness profiles of professional futsal players: identifying age-related differences

Study aim: The aim of this study was to determine the fitness profiles of senior and junior futsal players and to identify potential differences between the studied age groups

Reliability, Validity and Usefulness of a New Response Time Test for Agility-Based Sports : A Simple vs. Complex Motor Task

The importance of response time (RT) in sports is well known, but there is an evident lack of reliable and valid sport-specific measurement tools applicable in the evaluation of RT in trained athletes. This study aimed to identify the validity, reliability, and usefulness of four newly developed RT testing protocols among athletes from agility-saturated (AG) and non-agility-saturated (NAG) sports. Thirty-seven AG and ten NAG athletes (age: 20.9± 2.9; eleven females) volunteered to undergo: three randomized simple response time (SRT-1, SRT-2, and SRT-3) protocols that included a single limb movement, and one complex response time (CRT) protocol that included multi joint movements and whole body transition over a short distance (1.5 and 1.8m). Each RT test involved 3 trials with 5 randomized attempts per trial. Two sensors were placed at the left- and right-hand side for SRT-1 and SRT-2. Three sensors were positioned (left, middle, right) in SRT-3 and CRT. The intra-class-correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated as a measure of reliability. Independent sample t test, effect size (d), and area-under-the-curve (AUC) were calculated to define discriminative validity of the tests. The results showed the newly developed tests were more reliable and useful in the AG than NAG athletes (i.e., ICC between 0.68 and 0.97versus 0.31 - 0.90, respectively). The RT of AG athletes was faster than that of NAG athletes in the CRT test from the left (p<0.01, d = 2.40, AUC: 0.98), centre (p < 0.01, d = 1.57, AUC:0.89), and right sensor (p < 0.01, d = 1.93, AUC: 0.89) locations. In contrast, there were no differences between the groups in the SRT tests. The weak correlation (i.e., r= 0.00 - 0.33) between the SRT and CRT tests suggests that response time of the single limb and multijoint limb movements should not be considered as a single motor capacity. In conclusion, this study showed that AG athletes had faster response time than their NAG peers during complex motor tasks. Such enhanced ability to rapidly and accurately reprogram complex motor tasks can be considered one of the essential qualities required for advanced performance in agility based sports

Reliability, validity and usefulness of a new response time test for agility-based sports : A simple vs. complex motor task

The importance of response time (RT) in sports is well known, but there is an evident lack of reliable and valid sport-specific measurement tools applicable in the evaluation of RT in trained athletes. This study aimed to identify the validity, reliability, and usefulness of four newly developed RT testing protocols among athletes from agility-saturated (AG) and non-agility-saturated (NAG) sports. Thirty-seven AG and ten NAG athletes (age: 20.9 ± 2.9; eleven females) volunteered to undergo: three randomized simple response time (SRT-1, SRT-2, and SRT-3) protocols that included a single limb movement, and one complex response time (CRT) protocol that included multi joint movements and whole body transition over a short distance (1.5 and 1.8m). Each RT test involved 3 trials with 5 randomized attempts per trial. Two sensors were placed at the left-and right-hand side for SRT-1 and SRT-2. Three sensors were positioned (left, middle, right) in SRT-3 and CRT. The intra-class-correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated as a measure of reliability. Independent sample t-test, effect size (d), and area-under-the-curve (AUC) were calculated to define discriminative validity of the tests. The results showed the newly developed tests were more reliable and useful in the AG than NAG athletes (i.e., ICC between 0.68 and 0.97 versus 0.31-0.90, respectively). The RT of AG athletes was faster than that of NAG athletes in the CRT test from the left (p <0.01, d = 2.40, AUC: 0.98), centre (p < 0.01, d = 1.57, AUC: 0.89), and right sensor (p < 0.01, d = 1.93, AUC: 0.89) locations. In contrast, there were no differences between the groups in the SRT tests. The weak correlation (i.e., r= 0.00-0.33) between the SRT and CRT tests suggests that response time of the single limb and multijoint limb movements should not be considered as a single motor capacity. In conclusion, this study showed that AG athletes had faster response time than their NAG peers during complex motor tasks. Such enhanced ability to rapidly and accurately reprogram complex motor tasks can be considered one of the essential qualities required for advanced performance in agility-based sports.

Analyzing the Relationship between Participation in Sports and Harmful Alcohol Drinking in Early Adolescence: Two-Year Prospective Analysis

Alcohol drinking is an important health-related problem and one of the major risk factors for a wide array of non-communicable diseases, while there is a lack of studies investigating environment-specific associations between sports participation and alcohol drinking in adolescence. This study prospectively investigated the relationship between sports factors (i.e., participation in sports and competitive achievement), with the prevalence of harmful alcohol drinking (HD), and HD initiation in 14-to-16 years old adolescents from Bosnia and Herzegovina (n = 641, 337 females, 43% living in rural community). Participants were tested over 4-time points divided by approximately 6 months, from the beginning of high school to the end of the second grade. Variables included gender, factors related to sport participation, a community of residence (urban or rural), and outcome: alcohol consumption was assessed by the AUDIT questionnaire. Results evidenced that the prevalence of HD increased over the study period from 6 to 19%, with no significant differences between urban and rural youth. Logistic regression for HD as criterion evidenced adolescents who participated in sports and then quit as being at particular risk for drinking alcohol at the study baseline. Sports factors were not correlated with HD initiation in the period between 14 and 16 years of age. It seems that the problem of alcohol drinking should be preventively targeted in all youth, irrespective of living environment. Although sports participation was not evidenced as being a factor of influence on HD initiation, results highlight the necessity of developing targeted preventive campaigns against alcohol drinking for adolescents who quit sports

Agility Testing in Youth Football (Soccer) Players : Evaluating Reliability, Validity, and Correlates of Newly Developed Testing Protocols

Reactive agility (RAG) and change of direction speed (CODS) are important determinants of success in football (soccer), but there is an evident lack of information on reliable and valid football-specific testing procedures which will be applicable in defining sport-specific RAG and CODS in youth players. This study evaluated reliability and construct validity of newly developed tests of football-specific RAG (FS_RAG) and CODS (FS_CODS), which involved the ball kicking football technique. Additionally, factors associated with FS_RAG and FS_CODS were evaluated. The participants were youth football players (n = 59; age: 13.40 ± 1.25 years) divided according to their age into U13 (11–12 years of age; n = 29), and U15 (13–14 years of age; n = 30) categories. Additionally, performance levels (starters [first-team] vs. non-starters [substitutes]) were observed in each age category. The dependent variables were newly developed FS_RAG and FS_CODS tests. The independent variables were sprinting capacities over 10 and 20 meters (S10M, S20M), countermovement jump (CMJ), the reactive strength index (RSI), and a generic CODS test of 20 yards (20Y). The newly developed FS_CODS and FS_RAG were observed as dependent variables. Results showed appropriate intra-testing and inter-testing reliability of the FS_RAG and FS_CODS, with somewhat better reliability of the FS_CODS (ICC=0.82 and 0.79, respectively). Additionally, better reliability was evidenced in U15 than in U13 (ICC: 0.82–0.85, and 0.78-0.80 for U15 and U13, respectively). Independent samples t-test indicated significant differences between U13 and U15 in S10 (t-test: 3.57, p < 0.001), S20M (t-test: 3.13, p < 0.001), 20Y (t-test: 4.89, p < 0.001), FS_RAG (t-test: 3.96, p < 0.001), and FS_CODS (t-test: 6.42, p < 0.001), with better performance in U15. Starters outperformed non-starters in most capacities among U13, but only in FS_RAG among U15 (t-test: 1.56, p < 0.05). Multiple regression calculations indicated nonsignificant association between independent and dependent variables in U13 (FS_CODS: 19%, FS_RAG: 21% of the explained variance, both p > 0.05), but independent variables explained significant proportion of both dependent variables in U15 (FS_CODS: 35%, FS_RAG: 33% explained variance, both p < 0.05). The study confirmed the applicability of newly developed tests in distinguishing studied age categories of players. Results indicate that superiority in all studied fitness capacities is translated into performance level in U13. Meanwhile, FS_RAG seems to be important determinant of quality in U15