A Profile of Fitness Parameters and Performance of Volleyball Players

Abstract

Background: Ball games require comprehen-sive ability including physical, technical, men-tal and tactical abilities. Among them, physicalabilities of players exert marked effects on theskill of the players themselves and the tacticsof the team. Therefore players must have thephysical abilities to meet the demand of thesport. Volleyball is one of the most popularlyplayed games in the world. Unfortunately, thelevel of performance of the Indian volleyballplayers lags far behind the international stan-dards. Aim of the Study: The present study wasaimed to assess flexibility, muscular endurance,power and cardio-respiratory endurance of vol-leyball players and to compare the results withage matched controls. Also, to compare thefindings of the volleyball players with that ofthe international norms from the available lit-erature and to make some suggestions for theimprovement in their performance level. Ma-terial and Methods: The study was carried outin 40 male volleyball players aged between 17to 26 years and 40 ages matched male controls.Physical fitness parameters namely flexibility,muscular endurance, power and cardio-respi-ratory endurance were measured, data was ana-lyzed using unpaired ‘t’-test. Results: It was ob-served that all physical fitness parameters weresignificantly more in players as compared totheir aged-matched controls but when values ofthe subjects were compared to internationalstandards; our subjects were behind the recom-mended norms for the elite volleyball players.Conclusion: The volleyball players have moreadvantage of flexibility muscular endurance,power and cardio-respiratory endurance.

Keywords

• Flexibility
• Muscular Endurance
• Power
• Cardio-Respiratory Endurance
• Bicycle Ergometry
• VO2 max.