The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of plyometric training on sand and wooden parquet training surfaces on the physical performance parameters of young male basketball players. Twelve well-trained young male basketball players with age 17.58±0.5 years, body mass 87.73±9.82 kg, and height 193.75±7.02 cm were voluntarily involved in the study. All participants were grouped randomly as sand and wooden training groups. A six-week plyometric training programme was performed on the sand and wooden parquet surfaces. Anthropometric measurements and physical performance tests; vertical and standing long jump, box agility, and 30m sprint tests were performed. Data were collected before and after six weeks of plyometric training and were analysed using ANCOVA. The results indicated that the plyometric training programme significantly improved jumping, agility and 30m sprint performance for both groups. Significant differences were found between the post-test mean values of two groups in the box-drill agility and 30m sprint test scores (p < .05). The results of this study suggest that while the plyometric training performed on a wooden or sand surface does not cause a different effect on the improvement of jumping performance, plyometric training on the sand surface may be a more effective training surface to improve the agility and sprint performance of young players.

No abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of relative age in anthropometric measurements, muscular strength of adolescent swimmers. Material and Methods: The study sample was composed of 40 volunteers adolescent well-trained swimmers. Participants were grouped as swimmers born in the first quarter (January, February and March) and in the last quarter (October, November and December) of the same year. Anthropometric measurements were taken from each participant, and body mass index of participants were calculated. To determine performance parameters, handgrip, back and leg strength tests were performed on participants. The level of statistical significance was set at p < .05. Results: Statistical analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences in the body height and BMI ( p < .05 ), but body weight differences were not statistically significant between swimmers who are born first and last quarter of the same year ( p > .05 ). There were significant differences in the means of absolute leg and handgrip strength between relative age groups. There were statistically significant differences in the means of relative back, leg and handgrip strength between groups ( p < .05 ). All mean relative strength values of participants significantly differed in favour of the group born in the first quarter of the year. Conclusion: As a result of this study, it is determined that relative age has an effect on the measured anthropometric and muscular strength parameters of adolescent well-trained swimmers. The findings of this study revealed that relative age is an important factor to be considered in swimming performance in adolescent swimmers.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a relationship between the digit ratios and freestyle swimming performance of adolescent well-trained swimmers. Material and Methods: Twenty-two well-trained male swimmers who had at least 3 years of swim training experience were recruited as participants. The participants’ mean age was 14.1±1.5 years, body height was 164.5±11.3 cm, and body mass was 54.4±11.2 kg. Participants’ body height, mass, index finger (2D) and ring finger (4D) lengths were measured and digit ratio (2D:4D) and body mass index of participants was calculated. To determine the swimming performance of participants, the short (50m and 100m) and middle (200m and 400m) distance freestyle time-trial swimming tests were performed on participants. The association between the 2D:4D ratio and the swimming performance were determined by the Pearson correlation coefficient. Results. Our findings indicated that there were strong negative correlations (r > .50) between the mean of BMI and swimming times of adolescent swimmers. ( p > .05 ). However, result of this study revealed no relationship between the digit ratio (2D:4D) and swimming performance in adolescent swimmers. ( p > .05 ). Conclusion. As a result, it may be stated that the 2D:4D ratio of swimmers is not a major parameter in predicting swimming performance for adolescent swimmers.