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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BODY COMPOSITION AND ANAEROBIC

PERFORMANCE OF YOUNG FOOTBALL PLAYERS

Article · January 2017

DOI: 10.7813/2078-4124.2017/9-1/10

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. 9. No. 1. 2017

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BODY COMPOSITION AND

ANAEROBIC PERFORMANCE OF YOUNG FOOTBALL PLAYERS
Osman Ates*, Ozlem Kirandi, Burcak Keskin
1
Istanbul University, Sport Sciences Faculty, Istanbul (TURKEY)
*Corresponding author: osman-ates@hotmail.com

DOI: 10.7813/2078-4124.2017/9-1/10

ABSTRACT

The study is to examine the relationship between young football players’ body composition and their
anaerobic performance. 30 young football players with an average age of 6.3 ± 0.73 years and average height
of 175.2 ± 4.58 cm participated in the study. Body weight and body fat index were tested through Tanita BC-
418 model using bioimpidence analysis while anaerobic performance was analyzed with the Illinois agility test,
30m speed test and two feet long jump. The correlations between the participants’ body compositions and
anaerobic performance were analyzed. A positive correlation between agility and speed (r=0.518), between
speed and long jump (r=0.914), and a negative correlation between long jump and lean body weight (r=-0.362)
was found. The fact that the participant professional football players possessed similar levels of training and
physical features showed that there was no relation between body composition and agility. For all the sport
branches including anaerobic training, the high amount of body negatively affected performance. In other
words, high amounts of body fat rate results in lower performance and energy loss. Athletes’ body weight, body
fat index, height are among the determinants of their anaerobic performances.

Key words: Anaerobic Performance, Football, Young Player, Body Composition

1. INTRODUCTION

Technically, the body compositions of players have an effect on their sportive performance. Body
measurements play an important role in performance and it could be said that people with larger body
measurements have higher power and maximum anaerobic strength (Crawford, 1996). Each of the body type,
size, rate, and composition measurements that evaluates body structure provides traces of ideal properties for
sport branches and competitions. There are four important factors for body structure evaluation: 1- Selecting
talented players 2- Monitoring and evaluating development of players 3- Monitoring trainings and performance
4- Identifying ideal muscle and fat ratio for weight sport (Kerr, 1995).
Football is one of the most popular sport branches around the world (Bangsbo, 1994). Football is a
complex sport where aerobic and anaerobic power is used, muscular and cardio respiratory factors such as
speed, agility, flexibility, and balance affect performance, and have unique techniques and tactics with mental
properties (Akgun, 1983). During a football game, approximately 2-4 seconds sprints occur during each 90
second (Reilly, 1986). Sprints correspond to 1-11% of the total distance during game (Mohr, 2003; Van Gool,
1988; Reilly, 1986). Speed in football is different for other sports as well as within itself. It is known that players
sprint 60 times between 5-40m distances. Sprint distance at one time is 10-15 m and the related time is 2s.
Total sprint distance within the game is approximately 0.3 km (Reilly, 1986). Edge midfielders and edge
defenders perform higher intensity runs and sprints compared to other game positions (Van Gool, 1988).
While studies showed peak sprint speed values as 31-32 km/h (Rampinini et al., 2007), it is found that
before 45% of scored goals, unrivalled and flat sprints without the ball were made (Faude, 2012). For each
player, approximately 17-81 sprints per game were reported (Burgess 2006; Di Salvo, 2006). Body
composition has an impact on converting physiological properties to performance. If the properties of body
composition are unfit for the sport, it is nearly impossible to reach desired performance levels. However, body
composition is only one of the factors that enables players to show high level performance. Strength, flexibility,
durability, power, speed, and agility are combined with body composition and positively affects the
performance of the player (Acikada, 1990; Ozkan, 2009).
Agility is one of the necessary physical components in football to achieve successful performance.
(Ellis, 2000). Agility, however, is a key performance component that determines the quality of movements,
such as acceleration and deceleration of the football player. Compared to general population, an elite football
player could be differentiated in terms of power, strength, and flexibility (Reilly, 2000). However, in general, in
the case of sports involving rapid movement of body weight and movement patterns that require a change of
direction, a high body-fat ratio will negatively affect performance both mechanically and metabolically
(Hogstrom et al., 2011; Boileau and Horswill, 2002; Heyward and Stolarczyk, 1996; Ellis et al., 2000). High
body-fat ratio will reflect as an extra weight in addition to tissues that provides power to body weight in terms of
movements patterns that require horizontal and vertical acceleration. This will negatively affect performance
(Aslan et al., 2011).

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2. MATERIALS AND METHOD

2.1. Study Group

30 volunteer football players participated in the study with the average age of 16.3 ± 0.73 years old, and
a height average of 175.2 ± 4.58 cm. All football players in the study were informed about the objective of the
study and potential risks and signed a permit document.

2.2. Data Collection/Tests and Measurement

The height of all the football players participated in the study were recorded in a position where the
heels are touching each other, the body is vertical to the ground, and without shoes. The measurements were
recorded in cm. Body weight and body fat measurements were made bare foot and tested with Tanita BC-418
device using bio-impedance method with 0.01 sensitivity. To test anaerobic performance of young football
players, Illinois agility test, 30 m speed test, and double foot long jump test was made. After testing 30 football
players in the study, the relationship between body compositions and anaerobic performance was investigated.

3. FINDINGS

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of the participant players

N Mean Standard Deviation

Age (years-old) 30 16.3 .73

Height (cm) 30 175.2 4.58

Body Weight (kg) 30 65.423 5.87

Body fat ratio (BFR) 30 11.516 2.80

Body Weight without Fat (BWF) 30 57.53 5.32

As shown in Table 1, 30 volunteer football players participated in the study. Descriptive information
showed that the age average was 16.3 ± 0.73 years old, and height average was 175.2 ± 4.58 cm. Weight
average of the football players was 65.423 ± 5.87 kg, BFR was 11.516 ± 2.80, and BWF was 57.53 ± 5.32.

Table 2. Anaerobic capacity values of players in the study

Standard
N Mean
Deviation
30M Speed (sec) 30 4.33 .116
Illinois Agility left
30 15.87 .241
(sec)
Double foot Long
30 222.90 12.272
Jump (cm)

Table 2 indicated certain anaerobic performance parameters of young football players in this study. 30m
speed value average was 4.33 ± .116 sec, Illinois agility left value average was 15.87 ± .241 sec and double
foot long jump average was 222.90 ±12.272 cm.

Table 3. Correlation relationship between body composition and

speed, agility, and long jump values

Body Weight without

Agility Long Jump Body Fat Ratio (%)
Fat (kg)
r p r p r p r p

Speed (30 m) .518** .003 .914** .000 .753** .000 .396* .031

Agility .428* .018 .734** .000

Long Jump (cm) .636** .000 -.362* .050

**p<0.01

When Table 3 was investigated, there was positive moderate level correlation between agility and
speed run (r = 0.518), positive moderate level correlation between speed run and long jump distance (r=0.914),

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. 9. No. 1. 2017

positive moderate level correlation between speed run and body fat ratio (r=0.753), positive moderate level
correlation between speed run and body weight without fat (r=0.396), positive moderate level correlation
between agility and long jump distance (r=0.428), positive moderate level correlation between agility and body
fat ratio (r=0.734), positive moderate level correlation between long jump and body fat ratio (r=0.636), negative
moderate level correlation between long jump distance and body weight without fat (r=-0.362).

4. DISCUSSION

In this study, the effect of body composition of young football players on speed, agility, and anaerobic
performance was investigated. Average age and height average of 30 volunteer football players in the study
were determined to be 16.3 ± 0.73 years old, and 175.2 ± 4.58 cm respectively. The average weight of the
football players was identified as 65.423 ± 5.87 kg, BFR was identified as 11.516 ± 2.80, and BWF was
identified as 57.53 ± 5.32. Hazir et al. (2010) determined that 23 young soccer players who voluntarily
participated in the study were 15.83 ± 0.56 years, 172.4 ± 6.4 cm, and 62.2 ± 5.5 kg, respectively. Our study
was consistent with the results of this literature study.
Although age seems to have a direct effect on strength and anaerobic power, the main effect is on
height, weight, and body weight without fat. Strength and anaerobic power is mainly affected by height, weight,
and body weight without fat where age has indirect effect (De SteCroix et al., 2003). There are various
researches in the literature that investigated the relationship between body composition and physical
performance (Silverstre et al., 2006). However, researches that examine the relationship between
anthropometric variables and agility performance are limited.
As a result of our study, the relationship between fat percentage and muscle mass and agility values
were under the expected values. According to Table 3, when body fat ratio and agility relationship was
evaluated, there was no significant effect on agility. A study on rugby players found a weak relationship
between body fat and directional running speed (r = 0.21). (Sheppard and Young, 2006). This data supports
the finding in Table 3. Another study conducted on 80 male volunteer players with average age of 22.171.97
years. When correlation test was applied to findings of this study, there were weak relationships between age
and body fat, back strength, body fat ratio, and relative strength in the same direction (Aslan et al. 2011). Ideal
body composition changes for different sport branches. Fundamentally, low fat ratio positively effects sport
performance. Excessive amount of subcutaneous body fat adversely effects flexibility, strength, speed, and
agility and cause excessive much energy loss in the durability branches, and can also negatively impact
physical performance (Engels et al. 2002).
T-test assessing agility in basketball players revealed significant relationships between VA and VYY r =
0.58 and r = 0.80, respectively (Chaouachi et al., 2009). On the other hand, Hazir and et al., (2010) found that
in their study, Chaouachi et al. (2009) found insignificant relationships between score and anthropometric
variables obtained in the Illinois agility test for young footballers. While the positive effect of body weight on
agility was observed in the obtained data, no significant effect of body fat ratio on agility was observed (Table
3). In Table 3 where height and speed data are analysed, found that as height increased, the speed
decreased. When the results of the long jump test were examined, the positive effects of height, body weight,
body fat percentage, lean body mass index and body mass index were invisible in these results. Based on
these results, it can be said that body weight and height weight index have a positive effect on agility. Height,
negatively effects speed.
When the agility values of our subject groups are examined there was a positive moderate correlation (r
= 0.914) between the variables of positive, moderate correlation (r = 0.518), speed run and long jump distance
between variables of agility and speed run duration. 30-m speed test results of the experiment group showed a
positive, moderate correlation (r = 0.396) between the variables of the sprinting period and the body fat ratio,
and a positive moderate correlation (r = 0.753) between the sprinting period and the body mass without fat
variables. The relationship between body composition components and various physical performance tests
such as long jump, 50-yard speeding and shuttle running was studied in a study with boys before
adolescences. A significant negative correlation was found between the amount of body fat determined by
densitometry and the level of performance in the 50 yard sprint test (Cureton et al 1975). That study examined
the relationship between body composition and physical performance in 27 footballs with an average age of
19.9 ± 1.3 years. It has been reported that the relationship between body fat percentage and body mass
without fat, vertical jump, sprint performance, total body strength, and VO2 max showed significant correlations
ranging from r = -0.67 to r = 0.61. In football, body fat percentage was found to be significantly positively
correlated at r = 0.60 level (Silvestre et al. 2006).
A positive moderate correlation (r = 0.734) was found between the agility and long jump variables of the
participants in the study and a positive moderate correlation (r = 0.428) and agility and body fat ratio variables.
Cureton et al. (1975) found that there was a significant negative correlation between body fat and the level of
performance in the long-jump test. In our study, we found a negative, moderate correlation (r = -0.362)
between the long jump distance and body fat ratio variables with a positive moderate correlation (r = 0.636),
long jump distance and lean body mass variables. In a study of 21 female and 374 male children, a significant
positive correlation was found between body mass without fat and long jump performance at r = 0.65, while a
significant negative correlation was found between body fat percentage and long jump performance at r = -0.33
(Boileau and Horswill, 2002; Aslan et al., 2011). In the studies performed with 80 male volunteer athletes,

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL of ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. 9. No. 1. 2017

strong correlations between body weight and long jump were found between the same direction weakness,
back strength, body fat ratio and anaerobic power (Aslan et al., 2011).
As a result of the review the studies examining the relationships between body composition and agility,
some research has indicated significant correlations while others refer to no meaningful relations. In this study,
no significant relation was found between body composition and agility, which is in parallel with certain
previous study findings while it shows opposite results with other findings in the literature. Considering the fact
that the participants of the study were professional athletes, it is thought that similar training levels and physical
features the participant athletes shared resulted in finding no meaningful relation between body composition
and agility.

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