Effect of specific conditioning training on selected physical components of football players

Abstract

Football (soccer) has been recognized as the "beautiful game" for its simplicity, rapid pace and various forms of scoring. In recent years, football has grown rapidly in terms of its worldwide audience and popularity. This rapid growth has caused an increased amount of research and discussion about ways to improve a player’s ability to play the game effectively. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of a conditioning program designed to improve both aerobic and anaerobic endurance as well as the agility of high school level players. A total of 40 male high school players aged 14–17 years of age from the state of Kerala, India, were selected for the study using random assignment to either control or experimental groups. The Experimental group of players were placed through a 6-week conditioning program using circuit-based conditioning exercises while the Control group players followed their normal training. Two performance tests were used to measure the players’ performance; the Arrowhead Agility Test was used for measuring agility, and the Sprint Fatigue Test was used for measuring anaerobic endurance. Both test methods provided numerical data that were easily reduced to statistical values and subjected to both paired sample and independent t-tests at the.05 level. Results showed that while the just acuity and anaerobic endurance measures improved during the experimental group’s post-test, no improvement in agility and Level III anaerobic endurance measures was observed in the experimental group post-test compared to the control group. The results of this study show us the need to incorporate sport-related conditioning drills into football training programs as means of enhancing the major physical fitness parameters needed by footballers. The study plays a key role in expanding our current understanding of sports science with regards to both sportrelated drills, as well as scientifically designed sport specific drills as a way of increasing the level of an athlete’s performance. Thus, these results may prove beneficial to both football practitioners and coaches.