Comparison of Repeated Sprint Ability of Amateur Football Players According to Age and Playing Positions

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the repeated sprint ability of amateur footbal players according to age andplaying positions. For this purpose, 174 young amateur soccer players (age: 17.2±1.8 years, height: 175.8±7.5 cm,weight: 67.0±9.8 kg) struggling in different playing positions participated voluntarily to the study. The players dividedinto six categories as goalkeepers (n: 16; age: 17.4±1.4 years, height: 181.9±6.1 cm, weight: 77.4±9.8 kg), centraldefenders (n: 30; age: 16.9±1.9 years, height: 179.3±8.2 weight: 69.5±11.2 kg), full-backs (n: 34; age: 17.3±1.9 years,height: 174.9±5.9 cm, weight: 66.6±7.8 kg), central midfielders (n: 36; age: 17.9±1,6 years; height: 174.3±7.1 cm;weight: 67.1±9.3 kg), wide midfielders (n: 30; age: 16.8±1.6 years, height: 171.5± 5.1 cm, weight: 60.8±7.4 kg) andforwards (n: 28; age: 16.6±1.9 years, height: 175.9±8.3 cm, weight: 65.6±8.0 kg). In the study, a repeated sprint testwas used to determine the repeated sprint ability of the football players, with an in field 34.2 meter long sprint run anda 25 second rest period after each run. In evaluating the data; descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA andkruskal-wallis tests were used. According to the analysis results; the best test time (BTT), mean test time (MTT), andtotal test time (TTT) values in the repeated sprint test showed a statistically significant difference according to playingpositions and age factor (p .05).As a result, it can be argued that repeated sprint ability differs according to age and playing positions.