BODY BUILT AND PHYSICAL FITNESS OF 14-16-YEAR-OLD FOOTBALL PLAYERS AS COMPARED WITH NON-TRAINING PEERS

Abstract

Aim: The objective of the study was the assessment of somatic build and physical fitness of 14-16-year-old football players as compared with non-training peers as well as relation between their body-build and physical fitness. Basic procedures: 108 football players and 101 non-training boys participated in the research. The level of somatic development of boys was assessed on the basis of body height and weight measurements, which were used to determine BMI and Rohrer index. Additionally functional length of left and right lower limbs was determined. The level of physical fitness was tested by EUROFIT. The strength and relation between body built features and physical fitness were measured by the Pearson correlation coefficient r linear, and by the test t to define its significance. Results: Football players and non-training boys characterized leptosomatic build type. Only 14-year-old footballers were higher in terms of statistical significance and had longer lower limbs in comparison with non-training peers. In physical fitness tests football players had better scores than non-training ones, and the differences of statistical significance most frequently occurring in 14-year-olds were demonstrated. Conclusion. The assessed motor abilities forming physical fitness of football players and non-training peers indicated clear correlations with body built only in 14-year-old boys. Rare occurrence of smaller correlations in 15-16-year-old football players can suggest that football training created a certain structure of physical fitness, different from that of non-training peers, but in most cases it was not related to the body structure.