The Evaluation of the Physical Characteristics of Football Players at the Age of 9-15 in Accordance With Age Variables

This study has been conducted with the aim of evaluating the physical characteristics of children at the age group of 9-15, who play football at amateur level, in accordance with age. The domain of the study consists of amateur male football players(n=82) who play actively in Kayseri and have been selected with random sampling method. In order to investigate the effects of football training on physical parameters, some tests selected from Eurofit test battery such as hand grip strength, plate tapping, 30 seconds of sit-ups, flamingo, standing broad jump, sit and reach, 20 meters shuttle run, as well as 20 meters sprint and anthropometric measurements (height, weight and body mass index) were applied to the subjects. The statistical evaluation of data is based on 0.05 significance value; after the descriptive statistical and One-Way ANOVA tests have been applied, Duncan has been used as second level test in order to evaluate the differences between the groups. According to the results, some substantial differences(p<0,05) between the players with respect to height(cm), weight(kg) left-handed grip strength(kg), right-handed grip strenth(kg), plate tapping(sec), flexibility(cm), standing broad jumping(cm), 20-meter-shuttle run test (ml/kg/min), 20- meters-sprint were observed while no crucial differences(p>0,05) have been found with respect to parameters such as BMI(%), sit-ups (30 sec/times), flamingo balance test(errors). It has been determined after the evaluation of the results that the differences associated with the physical properties of the footballers between 9 and 15 years old affect the development of the players in accordance with their ages and that sports contribute positively to their physical properties in terms of development level and time.