Assessment of physical fitness in children football players: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective:To describe the physical aptitudes in children between seven and 11 years. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional design with 41 participants selected in a non-probabilistic way. Strength, endurance, speed, and flexibility were measured. Results: At the age of seven, 66.6% are between the 50th and 97th percentile in flexibility; endurance the same amount between the 50th and 75th percentile, while the reaction speed test obtained a low performance in 66.6%.At the age of 8 years 66% were classified between the 50th and 97th percentile in the back throw and horizontal throw tests, but in the 20 m speed test 66% were poor. 75% of the nine-year-old participants in a lower than 25th percentile for speed, in contrast to flexibility, 50% were good. In reaction speed, 10-year-old children are between the 75th and 97th percentile with 46.6%, while in endurance, 66.6% was poor.The 11-year-olds in the horizontal jump and 20-meter sprint tests were extremely good (44%) and good (55.5%).When analyzing endurance and flexibility, no statistically significant differences were found (p > .05) between the seven and 11 years.While the aptitudes of maximum speed, reaction speed, strength and explosive strength, there were statistically significant differences (p < .05) when comparing the ages. Conclusions: Performance improves as age increases, not including the 20 m speed test and the 1000 m endurance which was inversely related to age.