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Introduction Football is a polistructural, acyclic and intermittent activity that includes activities such as sprinting, turning, jumping and shooting. Performing these actions requires high levels of power, speed, and agility abilities. The aim of this study was to identify differences in power- speed capacities between 2 categories of different age in youth football players. Method The participants in this study were 255 young football players (average 10.57 years old) divided in two age groups, U10 (n=109) and U11 (n=145). All participants conducted anthropometric measurements that included body height (BH) and body weight (BW), and motoric assessments – 5- meter sprint (S5), 10-meter sprint (S10), 20-meter sprint (S20), broad jump (BJ), slalom (SLA), slalom with the ball (SLAB). Statistical analysis included descriptive statistic parameters and one- way ANOVA for determining group differences. Results and discussion Results showed four major significant differences between observed groups. Children in the U-11 category were significantly higher (p=0.01) and have bigger body mass (p=0.01), they have more powerful lower extremities (p=0.01) and they possess better ball handling skills (p=0.01) in contrast to the children from the U-10 category. These results can be explained by the fact that the children of that age are experiencing rapid changes of body composition, body height and body mass. These anthropometric changes will consequently cause differences in manifestation of motor abilities. Conclusion This study once again confirmed significant differences in morphological characteristics and motor abilities in prepubertal children. Although they are in the pre-PHV period, these differences suggest that children at this age develop rapidly and sport coaches and practitioners should be especially careful during the selection process and planning of the training program. |
