CARDIO RESPIRATORY ENDURANCE OF FOOTBALL PLAYERS AT INTER UNIVERSITY LEVEL

Mr. Shivamurthy A., Dr. Appanna M. Gasti and Dr. Gajanana Prabhu B.

Abstract

The game of football is generally assumed that through the years, the game has developed to become faster, with more intensity and aggressive play than seen previously. It is widely acknowledged that a scientific approach has to be employed for selecting prospective athletes and training them for better performance. As an essential stage for adopting a scientific approach, systematic collection of empirical data and materials are essential. The purpose of the study was to compare cardio respiratory endurance of football players belonging to different states at the South Zone Inter University level competitions. Subjects for the study were randomly selected 259 inter-University level male football players who competed at south zone inter-university competitions during the academic years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. The criterion measure to assess cardio respiratory fitness selected for the present investigation was the beep Test. In order to examine the hypotheses of the study, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed apart from other descriptive statistics. There is significant difference in cardio respiratory fitness of inter University level football players belonging to different south Indian states. Players representing different Universities from Tamil Nadu and Kerala states have higher vital capacity than those from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh states. It is also observed that, the players from Kerala had the highest amount of vital capacity whereas their counterparts from Karnataka had the least. Physical fitness profile of football players provides essential information for identification of talent and preparation of a team at any level. Success of any football team directly depends upon the cardio respiratory fitness of players. Novice and feasible techniques of assessing physical fitness have to be adopted by coaches and sports trainers to constantly uplift the standard of their teams.

Keywords: Physical Fitness, Cardio Respiratory Endurance, Beep Test and football.