Comparing physical fitness levels between small sided football game and large sided football games players at David Livingstone college of education, Livingstone, Zambia.

Abstract

This study sought to compare agility, cardiovascular endurance and body composition components of physical fitness between 4 v 4 small sided football game players and 11 v 11 large sided football games players at David Livingstone College of Education in Zambia. A Quasi-experimental design using pre-test and post-test approach was employed. The study enrolled 30 female student footballers who were randomly selected into two groups of 4 v 4 small-sided games (N= 8) and 11 v 11 large sided games (N=22). The pre-test and post-test designs were used to compare the physical fitness level. The illinois agility test was used to measure agility, yo-yo intermittent test level 1 was used to measure cardiovascular endurance and body mass index was calculated to measure body composition. The duration of the training in this study was five weeks. The researcher used SPSS version 20 in analysing data and the Wilcoxon rank size test was used to compare the pre-test and post-test scores from the Illinois agility test, yo-yo test and BMI to see if there was a significant difference between the 4 v 4 and the 11 v 11 in pre-test and post-test scores. The results of the study were accepted as significant at P < 0.05. To find the significant difference in the gain scores between the two groups (4 versus 4 and the 11 versus 11) Mann Whitney talysed data shows that football training under 4 v 4 small sided games improves agility of female football players than training under 11 v 11 large sided games while training under 11 v 11 large sided games improves cardiovascular endurance of female player than training under 4 v 4 small sided games. Analysed data also shows that football training under both 4 v 4 small sided games and under 11 v 11 large sided games improves body composition of female footballers.