Differences in practice and physical fitness level between two high school volleyball teams with different game records
Hiroyuki YOSHIDA, Hirohiko KAGAYA*, Kayoko SAWADA,Tsuyoshi SUZUKI** and Yasuhito SHINODA***
This study investigated the effect of volleyball practice on physical fitness, by comparing the amount of practice and physical fitness level between schools with successful and mediocre game records. Subjects were B high school (n= 12) and K high school (n=12) girls, who were members of the volleyball club. The tournament records ranked B school about 8th and K school about 128th in Tokyo. Duration of one practice session for B school and K school were about three hours and one hour, respectively. And energy expenditure during practice were 296.643.2 and 237.475.1 kcal, respectively. Frequencies of practice at B school and at K school were 6 and 4 days/week,respectively. None of the students had injuries due to excessive exercise. Tbere were no differences in anthropometric data between the two schools. Students from B school showed significantly higher values in grip strength, back strength, vertical jump, and peak oxygen uptake (absolute value) (p<0.001, p<0.01, p<0.01, and p<0.05, respectively). From the above results, it was consid.ered that B school's higher fitness level was caused by longer and more intense practice sessions.It was suggested that there was little chance for overuse injury to occur in practice sessions lastingthree hours or less per day.
