Effect of Training Surface on Agility and Passing Skills of Prepubescent Female Volleyball Players

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of different training surfaces (hard or sand surface) on agility and passing skills of prepubescent female volleyball players. 45 prepubescent girls (age: 11.1 ± 0.5 years) participated in this study and were separated in three groups. Groups S (N=15) and I (N=15) consisted of volleyball players, while group C (N=15) consisted of girls that had no volleyball training experience. All groups participated in a 10-week (3 days/week) volleyball training program that included technical and passing skills exercises. The program of groups S and I also included jumping and sprinting exercises. The training program of group S was conducted on sand surface, while groups I and C trained on hard surface. Measurements of agility (T-test and 505-test) and passing skills were conducted on both hard and sand surface before, in the middle (5th week) and after the end of the training program for groups S and I. Group C was tested only on hard surface before and after the training period. Data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA for independent samples. Agility T-test and 505-test were significantly (p<0.001) improved in all three groups after the 10-week training program. Agility improvement of group S was significantly (p<0.001) greater than the other two groups (I and C), regardless of the surface (hard or sand) that the test was executed. Group S achieved greater improvements than the other two groups in passing skills too. All three groups were significantly (p<0.001) improved in overhead and forearm passing accuracy after the 10-week training period, but it was group S that achieved the greatest improvement, regardless of the (hard or sand) that the test was executed. In conclusion training on sand surface could be a useful and effective tool for improving agility and passing skills in prepubescent female volleyball players. *Corresponding author: Maria Maridaki, Associate Professor, Department of Physical Education & Sports Science, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, Tel: +302107276043; Fax: +302107276113; E-mail: [email protected] Received August 20, 2013; Accepted September 20, 2013; Published September 27, 2013 Citation: Gortsila E, Theos A, Nesic G, Maridaki M (2013) Effect of Training Surface on Agility and Passing Skills of Prepubescent Female Volleyball Players. J Sports Med Doping Stud 3: 128. doi:10.4172/2161-0673.1000128 Copyright: © 2013 Gortsila E, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.