Age does not influence the physical performance of football players with cerebral palsy

Abstract

The aims of this study were to compare the physical performance profile of football players with cerebral palsy (CP), according to their age, consider the sport class (FT1, FT2, and FT3), and analyse the relationship between their age and their physical performance. The physical performance of seventy-five CP football players from the Spanish CP Football National Competition was assessed. A one-way analysis of variance did not reveal physical performance differences between CP football players classified into four age-groups (< 20; 20–29.9; 30–34.9; > 35vyears). The Pearson's correlation analysis did not show a correlation between players’ physical performance and their age, except for dribbling ability in the overall sample (r = 0.25; P = 0.037). The linear regression analysis showed that the age only predicted the dribbling ability (β = 0.25; P < 0.05) but with low explained variance (R2 = 0.06). The main finding of the present study reveals no systematic differences in physical performance between CP football players according to their age.