The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of plyometric training on sand and wooden parquet training surfaces on the physical performance parameters of young male basketball players. Twelve well-trained young male basketball players with age 17.58±0.5 years, body mass 87.73±9.82 kg, and height 193.75±7.02 cm were voluntarily involved in the study. All participants were grouped randomly as sand and wooden training groups. A six-week plyometric training programme was performed on the sand and wooden parquet surfaces. Anthropometric measurements and physical performance tests; vertical and standing long jump, box agility, and 30m sprint tests were performed. Data were collected before and after six weeks of plyometric training and were analysed using ANCOVA. The results indicated that the plyometric training programme significantly improved jumping, agility and 30m sprint performance for both groups. Significant differences were found between the post-test mean values of two groups in the box-drill agility and 30m sprint test scores (p < .05). The results of this study suggest that while the plyometric training performed on a wooden or sand surface does not cause a different effect on the improvement of jumping performance, plyometric training on the sand surface may be a more effective training surface to improve the agility and sprint performance of young players.

This study examines the physical performance parameters of amputee football players during a season according to their playing positions. A total of 16 amputee football players participated in this study. Hand grip strength, back, leg, arm strength, visual reaction, 10-20-30m sprint, flexibility tests, resting heart rate, and maximal heart rate measurements performed at the beginning, mid-season, and the end of the season. Seasonally significant differences were determined in defenders' left-hand grip, back, leg, and arm strength tests, and 10-20-30m sprint test scores. Moreover, seasonal significant differences were found in the test scores of the back, leg, arm strength, right-hand visual reaction, 10-20-30m sprint, and flexibility of midfield players. Significant differences were found in strikers' right- and left-hand grip, back, leg, and arm strength, and 20-30m sprints test mean scores. It was determined that the annual training plan had different positive contributions to the players' physical performance according to their playing positions. During the competition season, performance changes were determined by the midfielders' reaction, strength, flexibility, and sprint and the strength and sprint performance of the forwards and defenders.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of metabolic stress created by 6-week football training applied in the pre-season period on circulation and hematological parameters of well-trained male football players. Material: Fourteen male football players who competed in the U19 category of a football team in Turkish Football Super League participated in the study voluntarily. In the study, players'systolic - diastolic blood pressures and resting heart rates were measured and their blood samples were taken before and after the 6-week training period. Laboratory analysis was made to determine counts and concentration percentage of erythrocyte, leukocyte, and platelet sub-parameters. Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test was performed to determine the difference between pre and post measurements. Results: Our findings indicated that baseline mean values of lymphocyte, mean cell hemoglobin, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration were significantly higher than posttest mean values. The mean of diastolic blood pressure and resting heart rate measured before the preseason training camp were lower than their posttest mean values (p >.05). Conclusions: It is thought that the decrease in the mean values of diastolic blood pressure and resting heart rate caused by the effect of regular training during the preseason training period, while the increase in the mean values of mean cell haemoglobin and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration caused by the increased oxygen demand of the metabolism during the training period.

Comparative analysis of hematological parameters in well-trained athletes and untrained men

Purpose: The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of relative age in anthropometric measurements, muscular strength of adolescent swimmers. Material and Methods: The study sample was composed of 40 volunteers adolescent well-trained swimmers. Participants were grouped as swimmers born in the first quarter (January, February and March) and in the last quarter (October, November and December) of the same year. Anthropometric measurements were taken from each participant, and body mass index of participants were calculated. To determine performance parameters, handgrip, back and leg strength tests were performed on participants. The level of statistical significance was set at p < .05. Results: Statistical analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences in the body height and BMI ( p < .05 ), but body weight differences were not statistically significant between swimmers who are born first and last quarter of the same year ( p > .05 ). There were significant differences in the means of absolute leg and handgrip strength between relative age groups. There were statistically significant differences in the means of relative back, leg and handgrip strength between groups ( p < .05 ). All mean relative strength values of participants significantly differed in favour of the group born in the first quarter of the year. Conclusion: As a result of this study, it is determined that relative age has an effect on the measured anthropometric and muscular strength parameters of adolescent well-trained swimmers. The findings of this study revealed that relative age is an important factor to be considered in swimming performance in adolescent swimmers.

Background and Study Aim. Health literacy is the ability to access health information, understand, evaluate and apply health information. The health literacy of athletes may be determinant in the understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic process and in the level of the impact of this health-related anxiety factor. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine whether there is a relationship between college athletes' COVID-19 anxiety levels and their health literacy levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and Methods. College athletes between the ages of 18 and 32 participated in the study and the average age was 24.2. A total of 234 elite collage athletes participated in the study. 133 of the participants were males and 101 were females. COVID-19 Anxiety Scale was used to determine the COVID-19 anxiety states and Health Literacy index was used to the level of health literacy of the participants in the COVID-19 pandemic process. Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis were performed for statistical analyses. Significance level in analysis has been accepted as p. < 05. Results. Our findings revealed that there were significant relationships between elite athletes' health literacy sub-dimension scores and COVID-anxiety level. In addition, it was determined that access to information and understanding information sub-dimensions from health literacy sub-dimensions predicted elite college athletes’ the COVID-19 anxiety level at 21.2%. As a result, elite college athletes had low levels of anxiety against COVID-19, and this situation associated with their high level of health literacy. Conclusions. The increase of elite college athletes' the level of health literacy will decrease their anxiety levels. It will be beneficial to implement training programs that can increase their health literacy levels in order to reduce the impact of the unexpected health crisis due to COVID-19, especially the anxiety levels of college athletes.