Comparison of Anthropometrical, Physiological and Technical Characteristics of Elite Senior and Junior Female Water Polo Players: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT

It is known that stimuli are presented during training, which lead to biological and functional adaptations, as well as to morphological alterations. There are no relevant studies for water polo referring to the differences presented as to the anthropometric, performance related, physiological and technical characteristics affected by training for female water polo players.

The purpose of this study was to determine which of the above characteristics make athletes of the senior women’s national team differ from those of the junior women’s national team. The two samples of the present study were composed, respectively, of 13 athletes of the women’s national team with 9.8 ± 3 years of training experience in the 26.3 ± 4.4 age group (2nd position in the Athens Olympics of 2004) and 13 athletes of the junior women’s national team with 6.5 ± 1.7 years of training experience in the 17 ± 1.2 age group (4th position in the Junior European Championship of 2005).

Senior female water polo players didn’t differ in basic anthropometric variables when compared to the junior female players but only in limited variables. While considerably, they differed more in VO2max (50.3 ± 4.5 vs 45.3 ± 6.8 ml·kg-1·min-1), in performance in 400 m free swimming (5:24 ± 0:16 vs 5:36 ± 0:12 min:sec), in maximal lactate accumulation (8.4 ± 0.7 vs 6.4 ± 1.8 mmol·l-1), in performance in 25 free swimming (13.8 ± 0.4 vs 14.7 ± 0.8 sec), in overhead throwing velocity (16.0 ± 0.6 vs 15.1 ± 0.5 m·s-1) and on water vertical jump (62.0 ± 2.7 vs 59.3 ± 3.0 cm), probably due to more intense and more specialised training.

Keywords: