A One Year Monitoring Study on Cardio Respiratory Fitness and Anthropometric Parameters in Soccer Players Aged 18 Years

Introduction. Research for years has indicated the role that aerobic fitness plays on soccer game and its positive effects. The aim of the current study is to monitor anthropometric parameters and cardiorespiratory fitness in youth soccer players during one year. Methods. The participants were 76 youth soccer players aged 16–18 (±2.64) years. The players were members of five soccer clubs from the youth championship of Albania. All youth members were engaged in formal training (3–4 sessions/week; 90-120 min/ sessions) and had competed for at least 3 years. Subject were measurement (anthropometrics and cardiorespiratory fitness) at time 1 during year 2013 and the second measurement at time 2 during year 2014. Results. The improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness were statistical significant (1.7 ml/kg/min) at level of 95 percent level of confidence (cardiorespiratory fitness at p=0.004). Descriptive statistics showed higher values regarding anthopometrics but this increase were not statistically significant. Conclusion. In conclusion, we propose that in other study it will be needed to have a control group in order to compare this data (control group who do not train) with those who train and to have the real improvement by the soccer training sessions. Therefore, the assessment of the soccer player’s aerobic performance could be of interest for soccer coaches in order to evaluate and better programme their endurance training sessions.