TITLE:
Time of Day Effect on Soccer—Specific Field Tests in Tunisian Boy Players
AUTHORS:
Adnene Gharbi, Liwa Masmoudi, Sleheddine Ghorbel, Noureddine Ben Saïd, Riadh Maalej, Zouhair Tabka, Monia Zaouali
KEYWORDS:
Circadian Rhythm; Intra-Aural Temperature; Boy Players; Field Tests; Soccer Skills
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Physical Education,
Vol.3 No.2,
May
9,
2013
ABSTRACT:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the diurnal variation in some specific skills performance during field testing in boy’s footballer. In a balanced and randomized study design, 15 boys (mean ± SD; age 12.7 ± 1.1 years; height 1.54 ± 9.1 m; body mass 45.1 ± 3.2 kg) participated in the study. Subjects performed some specific soccer skills (kicking accuracy, ball control with the body, ball control with the head, coordination test, zigzag running (i.e., agility), zigzag with the Ball (i.e., dribbling) and the skill index (i.e., the ratio of the zigzag running without and with the ball) at two different times of day: 07:00 and 17:00 h. Moreover, intra-aural temperature was measured at both time-of-days. Intra-aural temperature was higher in the evening than the morning (P P P P In conclusion, a diurnal variation in intra-aural temperature, agility and dribbling were shown to be present. No time-of-day effect was observed for the coordination, skill index, kicking accuracy and juggling performance.