ASSESSMENT OF THE CONSEQUENCE OF RESISTANCE EXERCISE ON BIOMOTOR ABILITIES OF MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS IN FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, KONTAGORA, NIGERIA

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ASSESSMENT OF THE CONSEQUENCE OF RESISTANCE EXERCISE ON BIOMOTOR ABILITIES OF MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS IN FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, KONTAGORA, NIGERIA  

ABSTRACT

The study assessed the effects of resistance training on selected biomotor abilities of male football players in Federal College of Education (FCE), Kontagora, Nigeria. Twenty (20) male football players within the age range of 18-29 years participated in the study. They comprised all the playing positions of the football game; that is defence, midfield, forward and goalkeeper. For the purpose of this study, the one (1) group repeated-measures research design was adopted. It provided the organized station of the resistance training around six (6) stations of circuit, consisting of hand dips, lateral pull, leg press, leg curl, leg/knee extension and abdominal curl that were used for the training. Four (4) assessments of participants‟ biomotor abilities of abdominal strength, VO2 max (endurance), explosive power, flexibility, speed and agility were carried out at base-line, 4th, 8th and 12th week of training respectively. The resistance training programme lasted 12 weeks, on alternate days (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). The data collected were analysed using descriptive and repeated–measures analysis of variance. The findings of the study revealed significant effect of resistance training on abdominal strength (P < 0.001), endurance (P < 0.001), explosive power (P < 0.001), flexibility (P < 0.001), speed (P < 0.001) and agility (P < 0.001) of male football players of FCE Kontagora, Nigeria. Based on the above findings of the study, it was demonstrated, that resistance training programme significantly improved the biomotor abilities of male football players of FCE, Kontagora, Nigeria. The study recommended that biomotor ability training and tests of abdominal strength, endurance (VO2 max), flexibility, explosive power, speed and agility should be carried out regularly by coaches and trainers of male football players of the College. This would improve the general performance of the team and most desirably win titles for the College, especially the seemingly elusive Nigeria Colleges of Education Games Association (NICEGA) Football Championship Cup. Also, the FCE, Kontagora authorities should fully equip or upgrade to acceptable standards, the existing physical fitness laboratory or gym in the College to meet the training needs of all football players. This would further popularize the use of resistance training as a preferred method of improving many physiological variables of football players in the colleges of education and other tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Moreso, Coaches and trainers should be sponsored for further studies at home and abroad to improve their knowledge in modern scientific training methods, especially resistance training method. This would help to establish standards and produce quality football players in colleges of education and other tertiary institution in Nigeria.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1        Background to the Study

Football is a game of continuously changing tempo requiring players to be able to sustain high level of continuous effort especially in scoring goals (Cormie, McCaulley, Triplett and McBride, 2010). The rapidly increasing popularity of football has also brought about the demand for excellent performance among various teams. Footballers require many attributes to become successful players. These include cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and endurance, speed, flexibility, agility, power and coordination (Testore, 2012). The high intensity movements required of football players is closely related to the need for the development of strength, speed and agility (Keiner, Sander, Wirth and Schmmidtbleicher, 2014). Strength, endurance, explosive power, flexibility, speed and agility are biomotor abilities that make important contributions to efficient movement with or without the ball, thus play important roles in football techniques and tactics (Haff & Nimplhiues, 2012; Faude, Koch and Meyer, 2012).

In football, there are demands imposed on football players in terms of fitness readiness requirements to produce explosive power, strength, speed, flexibility, agility and adequate level of endurance (Bloomfield, Polman and O‟Donoghue, 2009). Maintaining a high level of these components throughout the session is necessary for achieving consistent high quality performance, while the basis for these individual components of players is built during youth. High intensity activities during match situation fall under acceleration, maximal speed and agility. It is essential to stimulate and maintain these abilities constantly during the training process (Bradley, 2015). Monitoring of physical preparedness parameters in the youth age group is an important part of the training process because it is an important period of physical development. Coaches, trainers and sports scientists can analyze the factors that affect football performance to provide useful information about the strengths and weakness of young football players (Hoff, 2008).

Strength is defined as the maximum amount of force that a muscle can exert against resistance in a single effort. Strength is an important fitness parameter among football players irrespective of gender and has been categorised as maximum strength, elastic strength and strength endurance (Ozbar, 2015). Maximum strength is the greatest force that a contracting muscle can produce. It is important in areas where a large resistance needs to be overcome or controlled. Maximum strength is required by most players of different positions in the game of football. Elastic strength is the type of strength required so that a muscle can move quickly against a resistance. The combination of speed of contraction and speed of movement is referred to as “power”. This special type of strength is of great importance to the explosive aspects of football such as in running, jumping and throwing of ball.

Strength endurance is the ability of the muscle to continue to exert force in the face of increasing fatigue (Ozbar, 2015). This is the combination of strength and duration of movement. Performing sit-ups to exhaustion is the test of strength endurance performance where a movement is repeated over a fairly long period of time (about 60 sec – 8 min). This is developed using a high number of repetitions with a low resistance. The strength of football players appear to be related to the positions in the team. Jackson and Wallden (2013) maintain that maximum strength is low among mid-field players and the full backs compared to the goalkeepers, forwards and central defenders.

Endurance refers to the ability to perform work of a given intensity over a time period and is sometimes referred to as stamina. A footballer is considered to have good endurance when he/she can continue to perform without undue fatigue. The aerobic capacities of football players when fully developed helps to develop the other components of fitness during training. There are two (2) basic types of endurance; aerobic and anaerobic endurance (DeProf, Cabri, Dufour and Clarys; 2013).

Aerobic means “with oxygen” and aerobic endurance means muscular work and movement done in the presence of oxygen (O2) to release energy for muscular contraction. Aerobic training leads to a strong cardio-respiratory system and an increased ability to use O2 for metabolic activities. The longer the duration of an event, the more important is the aerobic endurance. Aerobic endurance should be developed before anaerobic endurance among athletes(Tonnessen, Henn, Leirstein, Haugen and Seiler; 2013).

Anaerobic means “without oxygen” and anaerobic endurance refers to the energy systems which allow muscular contraction to occur using energy they already have in store. Anaerobic training allows football players to tolerate the buildup of lactic acid. There are two types; speed endurance and strength endurance. Speed endurance helps a player to run with speed despite lactic acid buildup, strength endurance allows a player to continue to express force despite lactic acid buildup. Midfielders have to make more long sprints as a consequence of their linking roles between defence and attack players (Haugen, Tonnessen and Seiler; 2013).

According to Little & Williams (2005), speed is the capacity to travel or move very quickly. Like all biomotor abilities speed can be broken down into different types. The one beneficial to a football player is the speed of the whole body moving at maximal running or the speed of a limb, such as the throwing arm in the throw-in or the takeoff leg in the jump over of an obstacle or the leg kick in the free kicks. When considering speed, it is important to include reaction time. This is the time between a stimulus and the response of the first movement by the players (Jackson & Wallden, 2013).

Flexibility is the ability to perform joint actions through a wide range of motion. The natural range of motion of each joint in the body depends on the arrangement of tendons, ligaments, connective tissues and muscles. The limit to a joint‟s range of motion is called the

“end position”. Injuries can occur when a limb or muscle is forced beyond its normal limits. Flexibility training can help reduce the risk of injury by gradually increasing a joints range of motion (Reilly, Bangsbo and Franks; 2000). Flexibility tends to decrease as we get older while females are usually more flexible at all ages than men. Improving flexibility, like the other biomotor abilities, is a slow process that increases the range of motion of a joint, which allows the muscles to be stretched beyond their normal point of resistance. It is required that it should be done daily with appropriate types of stretching exercises, which could either be active or passive stretching. This biomotor ability is required to play by all positions in football with the goalkeepers needing it the most (Vyas, 1997).  

Power is a product of force and the ability to produce as much force as possible in the shortest possible time. Strength, power and endurance share importance in the game of football. Many activities in football are forceful and explosive as in; jumping, tackling, kicking, turning and changing direction. The power output during such activities is related to the functional strength of the muscles involved in the movements as seen by the defenders, midfielders and attackers during game situations (Haff & Nimphius, 2012).

Sheppard & Young (2006) defined agility as a rapid whole body movement with change of velocity or direction in response to a stimulus. Agility is a football player‟s ability to make quick movement while maintaining balance and speed. Example of agile football activities includes running back after losing possession of the ball, dodging a defender and rapid change of direction while dribbling. All these activities require quick movements without the drastic loss of balance or speed. Agility in general requires a combination of balance, speed, coordination and strength. Drills focused on increasing agility in a football player invariably involve leg workouts.

Leg strength and footwork determine the agility more than anything else (Haugen, Tonnesen, Hisdal and Seiler, 2013).

Agility is required to either match or outclass one‟s opponents individually. A player has to adjust his movement in less than split of second to take advantage of the space. For example, if arriving into the 18 yard box is important, it is also important to adjust one‟s balance so as to have a contact with the ball at its most suitable spot. A footballer who is more agile will be able to safely get in and out of positions that would have been otherwise impossible. The football player needs to be efficient in movement across the sagittal, frontal and transverse planes. Smooth movement across these planes enhances the development and display of agility. The goalkeepers, midfield, forwards and central defenders in particular must display high level agility to be efficient in these playing positions (Kurz, 2001).

Marking is one of the toughest tasks in football. Players constantly move to loss their markers. Attacking players want to dislodge their markers and need agility to change direction at the rate of speed possible. At the same time, defensive players need agility to keep up with movement of the player they are tasked to mark. Goalkeepers on the other hand, need agility to change forms of their body to make saves that are nothing more than reactions. One can react but the ability to save comes from being very agile (Thomas, French and Hayes; 2009).

 

1.2       Statement of the Problem

The Federal College of Education, Kontagora football players‟ fitness profile in the last Nigeria Colleges of Education Games Association (NICEGA) has been a source of concern to coaches and trainers alike. Efforts to improve performance in football are often focused on techniques at the expense of training and fitness in Federal College of Education, Kontagora. The game of football requires comprehensive abilities, including: physical, mental and technical abilities among the players (Le Gall, Carling, Williams and Reilly, 2010). Since football demands repeated maximum exertion of running, jumping and quick turning, players must develop the physical abilities to complement such rapid and powerful movements. The researcher observed that football players of Federal College of Education, Kontagora seems to lack sufficient strength, endurance, flexibility, power, speed and agility, considering the position of 37th out of 44 participating colleges in the last NICEGA games. In addition, there is the general lack of good training facilities in the college. This fact goes to emphasize the need for optimal development of comprehensive biomotor abilities required to support the efficiency of football players of Federal College of Education, Kontagora. Unfortunately, the lack of formal training, especially resistance training in the college, has resulted in the poor display of endurance during game situations. This partly explains why the players do not sustain high tempo all through from start to the end of the official time of 90-minutes on the pitch during competitions, especially during NICEGA games.

Player‟s inability to do well in most organized football competitions, attested to the fact that poor speed capacity is partly responsible for their poor performance. Poor performance resulting from lack of effective powerful movements among football players at all levels of the game require urgent attention to research into different training methods including resistance training. Many activities of the game of football are forceful and explosive in nature. Kicking, jumping, tackling, swift turning and changing pace, for example, require power to execute. Power is judged by how rapidly a load or resistance can be moved. It is the product of strength and speed.

Sport scientists, team managers, coaches and trainers in the world over are presently investigating and exploring the best ways to improve performance of athletes. Therefore, most handlers of football teams are experimenting with different training methods towards finding the scientific basis of improving the different biomotor abilities that will enhance the performance of players. Research evidence from previous studies of Lidor, Armon, Cohen and Segal (2005) as well as that of Hoffman & Maresh (2000) revealed that resistance training method have proven to be the most efficient method for developing biomotor abilities of muscular strength, muscular endurance, speed, power, flexibility and agility of football players. Unfortunately, coaches and trainers in Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria do not have the knowledge of resistance training method. It is quite obvious that the extent of resistance training on football performance indices is critical to success in football match. It is also obvious that to develop football fitness, players must undergo series of conditioning, training and re-training.

All the reasons stated above constituted the driving force behind this study, which was to assess the effects of resistance training on selected biomotor abilities of male football players of Federal College of Education, Kontagora. The biomotor abilities include abdominal strength, endurance, flexibility, power, speed and agility exercises on football player‟s efficiency.

 

 

1.3        Research Questions

The following research questions were raised for the study:

  1. Will resistance training improve abdominal strength of male football players of Federal

College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria? ii. Will resistance training improve the endurance of male football players of Federal

College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria? iii. Will resistance training improve the explosive power of male football players of Federal

College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria? iv. Will resistance training improve the flexibility of male football players of Federal

College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria?

  1. Will resistance training improve the speed of male football players of Federal College of

Education, Kontagora, Nigeria? vi. Will resistance training improve the agility of male football players of Federal College of

Education, Kontagora, Nigeria?

1.4 Purpose of the Study  The main purpose of this was to;  i To assess the effects of resistance training on the abdominal strength of male football players of Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria ii To assess the effects of resistance training on the endurance of male football players of

Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria  iii To assess the effects of resistance training on the explosive power of male football players of Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria

iv                To assess the effects of resistance training on the flexibility of male football players of

Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria  v To assess the effects of resistance training on the speed of male football players of

Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria  vi To assess the effects of resistance training on the agility of male football players of

Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria

1.5        Basic Assumptions

On the basis of available research evidence, the following basic assumptions were made for the study:

  1. Resistance training can improve the abdominal strength performance of the male football players of Federal College of Education Kontagora, Nigeria in games and competitions.
  2. Resistance training can improve the endurance capacity of the male football players of

Federal College of Education Kontagora, Nigeria in games and competitions.

  • Resistance training can improve the explosive power performance of the male football players of Federal College of Education Kontagora, Nigeria in games and competitions.
  1. Resistance training can improve the flexibility of the male football players of Federal

College of Education Kontagora, Nigeria in games and competitions.

  1. Resistance training can improve the speed ability of the male football players of Federal

College of Education Kontagora, Nigeria in games and competitions. vi. Resistance training can improve the agility of the male football players of Federal

College of Education Kontagora, Nigeria in games and competitions.

1.6        Hypotheses

On the basis of the research questions, the following hypotheses were drawn:

Major Hypothesis

 There is no significant effect of resistance training on the biomotor abilities of male football players of Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria.

Sub-Hypotheses

  1. There is no significant effect of resistance training on the abdominal strength of male football players of Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria.
  2. There is no significant effect of resistance training on the endurance of male football players of Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria.
  • There is no significant effect of resistance training on the explosive power of male football players of Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria.
  1. There is no significant effect of resistance training on the flexibility of male football players of Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria
  2. There is no significant effect of resistance training on the speed of male football players of Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria.
  3. There is no significant effect of resistance training on agility of male football players of Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Nigeria

 

 

 

 

 

1.7       Significance of the Study

Football has been viewed largely as an endurance sport (Ozbar, 2015). This means that football players should be physically fit optimally. This study therefore, was to assess the effect of resistance training on the biomotor abilities of male football players of Federal College Education Kontagora, Nigeria.

This study will provide Federal College Education Kontagora football players the opportunity to be trained and tested in the selected biomotor variables of abdominal strength, endurance, flexibility, explosive power, speed and agility, which stimulated their interest to get involved in self-testing activities and self-evaluation of performance.

This study will promote and improve the physical fitness levels of Federal College Education Kontagora football players. This will prepare them for the great task of playing professional football and derive economic gains for self, family and community.

This study will provide students of Human Kinetics and Health Education, and other related fields the opportunity to acquire skills required to plan and execute resistance training programmes.

This study will provide a good learning curve for Federal College Education Kontagora football coaches and trainers, and served as a powerful tool for improving sports performance and standards.

This study will help to shed light on those biomotor ability variables that can be developed through a well structured resistance training programme such as strength, endurance, flexibility, explosive power, speed, agility among others.

This study will help to unveil the potentials of Federal College Education male

Kontagora football players. The training experience provided by the study, will improve both of their playing efficiency and their chances of being considered to play for state, national and international football clubs.

This study will also add to the pool of existing researches and serves as reference material to conduct similar studies which may concern male football players, different training methods and other group of variables not used in this study.

1.8        Delimitations

This study was delimited to assessing the effect of resistance training on biomotor abilities of male football players in Federal College Education Kontagora, using the variables such as abdominal strength, endurance (VO2 max), flexibility, explosive power, speed and agility. It was also delimited to male football players in FCE Kontagora of age range of 18 – 29 years.

The study was also delimited to the following resistance training activities; hand dips, lateral pull, leg/knee extension, leg press, leg curl and abdominal curl, conducted in the gym for a period of 12 weeks.

ASSESSMENT OF THE CONSEQUENCE OF RESISTANCE EXERCISE ON BIOMOTOR ABILITIES OF MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS IN FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, KONTAGORA, NIGERIA  

 

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