A Comparison of Endurance Training Responses to Hill and Sand among School Football Players

Abstract :
This present study compared the effects of 12 week endurance training responses to hill and sand surfaces on elastic leg strength and aerobic endurance (VO2 Max) among school football players. Thirty six trained football players (age 14 – 17 years, height 149 – 168 cm, weight 50 – 65 kg) volunteered for the present study. They were randomly assigned in to three equal groups, HSG – hill surface group (n=12) SSG-Sand surface group (n=12) and CG- Control group (n=12). Leg Strength test, Balke VO2max Test were measured pre and post training. Paired t-test, ANCOVA and Scheffe’s test were used to evaluate the effect of training. In all the cases 0.05 level of confidence was fixed to test the hypothesis. The result indicates that there was a significant improvement between pre and post test means of HSG and SSG and significant difference between experimental and control groups. When compare the two experimental groups, from the results it was found that the HSG was better than SSG on VO2 Max and SSG was better than HSG on elastic leg strength. This study shows that a 12 week endurance training program on hill and sand surfaces may result in the most physical and physiological changes in young football players.

Author Name(S) : Dr. S. Sethu

Keywords: Elastic Leg Strength, Vo2 Max, Endurance Running, Different Surfaces.