THE EFFECTS OF SIX WEEKS OF TRAINING ON PHYSICAL FITNESS AND PERFORMANCE IN TEENAGE AND MATURE TOP-LEVEL SOCCER PLAYERS

The main aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of soccer-specific training on physical fitness components in adolescent elite soccer players and make comparisons with older counterparts. Twenty two male soccer players, from the Serbian First Division team were allocated to two assigned trials according to age - young group (YG) and mature group (MG). Players in their teenage years (19 years and younger) were assigned to YG (10 subjects) and others to MG (12 subjects). Between the first and second, test session, all subjects followed six weeks of soccer-specific periodized training programme. There were no differences between groups at pre- and post-training trial for body mass, vertical jump height, average anaerobic power and VO2max (P>0.05). Body fat was significantly lower in YG before and after training program as compared to MG (P<0.0.5). Body mass and fat dropped significantly in both groups after training program (P<0.05). Furthermore, average anaerobic power and VO2max along with vertical jump height, were significantly improved in both groups (P<0.05) at post-training performance. Finally, the magnitude of change in VO2max was significanty superior in MG as compared to YG after training program (18.3 vs. 7.8%; P<0.05). The findings of the present study indicate that the trainability indices are not highly influenced by age in top-level soccer players. (Biol.Sport 26:3 79-387, 2009)