vol. 20, nr 51 · cracow – wroclaw 2010 issn 1731-0652 committee for rehabilitation, physical...

Vol. 20, nr 51INDEX COPERNICUS

CRACOW – WROCLAW 2010

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATIONCRACOW, POLAND

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATIONIN WROCLAW, POLAND

CRACOW – WROCLAW 2010

ISSN 1731-0652

COMMITTEE FOR REHABILITATION, PHYSICAL EDUCATIONAND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIEN CES

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SPORT KINETICS – IASK

AN TRO PO MO TO RY KAVol. 20, nr 51INDEX COPERNICUS

AKADEMIA WYCHOWANIA FI ZYCZ NE GOIM. BRO NI SŁA WA CZECHA W KRA KO WIEAKADEMIA WYCHOWANIA FI ZYCZ NE GO

WE WROCŁAWIU

KRAKÓW – WROCŁAW 2010

ISSN 1731-0652

KOMITET REHABILITACJI, KULTURY FIZYCZNEJI INTEGRACJI SPOŁECZNEJ PAN

MIĘDZYNARODOWE STOWARZYSZENIE MOTORYKI SPOR TO WEJ – IASK

AN TRO PO MO TO RY KAVol. 20, nr 51INDEX COPERNICUS

COMMITTEE FOR REHABILITATION, PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SPORT KINETICS – IASKUNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION, CRACOW, POLAND

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN WROCLAW, POLANDVOL. 20, NR 51 CRACOW – WROCLAW 2010

Design and DTP: University School of Physical Education, Cracow, PolandPrint: Drukarnia Cyfrowa KSERKOP, 30-019 Kraków, ul. Mazowiecka 60

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

CHAIRMANEdward Mleczko

V-CHAIRMANZofia Ignasiak

MEMBERSJan Chmura, Jerzy Januszewski, Andrzej Klimek, Tadeusz Koszczyc, Lesław Kulmatycki,

Wiesław Osiński, Joachim Raczek, Teresa Sławińska-Ochla, Włodzimierz Starosta

EDITORIAL BOARD

Michal Belej (Slovakia), Peter Blaser (Germany), Tadeusz Bober, Janusz Czerwiński, Sławomir Drozdowski, Józef Drabik, Joanna Gradek, Peter Hirtz (Germany), Josif Moisiejewicz Fejgenberg (Israel), Adam Haleczko,

Andrzej Jopkiewicz, Han C.G. Kemper (Holland), Krzysztof Klukowski, Vladimir Lyakh (Russia),Robert M. Malina (USA), Wacław Petryński, Ryszard Przewęda,

Igor Ryguła, Stanisław Sterkowicz, Stanisław Żak

EDITOR’S OFFICE

al. Jana Pawła II 7831-571 Kraków

Poland

Indexed in INDEX COPERNICUS

Linguistic proofreading and copy editing: Barbara Przybyło

© Copyright by University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland

ANTROPOMOTORYKAISSN 1731-0652

ANTROPOMOTORYKAKOMITET REHABILITACJI, KULTURY FI ZYCZ NEJ I INTEGRACJI SPOŁECZNEJ PAN

MIĘ DZY NA RO DO WE STO WA RZY SZE NIE MOTORYKI SPORTOWEJ – IASKAKADEMIA WY CHO WA NIA FI ZYCZ NE GO IM. BRONISŁAWA CZE CHA W KRA KO WIE

AKADEMIA WYCHOWANIA FIZYCZNEGO WE WROCŁAWIU

ISSN 1731-0652

VOL. 20, NR 51 KRAKÓW – WROCŁAW 2010

Opracowanie gra ficz ne i łamanie: Sekcja Koordynacji Projektów Wydawniczych AWF KrakówDruk: Drukarnia Cyfrowa KSERKOP, 30-019 Kraków, ul. Mazowiecka 60

REDAKCJA

Redaktor NaczelnyEdward Mleczko

Z-ca Redaktora Na czel ne goZofia Ignasiak

Komitet RedakcyjnyJan Chmura, Jerzy Januszewski, Andrzej Klimek, Tadeusz Koszczyc, Lesław Kulmatycki,

Wiesław Osiński, Joachim Raczek, Teresa Sławińska-Ochla, Włodzimierz Starosta

RADA REDAKCYJNA

Michal Belej (Słowacja), Peter Blaser (Niemcy), Tadeusz Bober, Janusz Czerwiński, Sławomir Drozdowski, Józef Drabik, Joanna Gradek, Peter Hirtz (Niemcy), Josif Moisiejewicz Fejgenberg (Izrael), Adam Haleczko,

Andrzej Jopkiewicz, Han C.G. Kemper (Holandia), Krzysztof Klukowski, Vladimir Lyakh (Rosja), Robert M. Malina (USA), Wacław Petryński, Ryszard Przewęda,

Igor Ryguła, Stanisław Sterkowicz, Stanisław Żak

ADRES REDAKCJI

al. Jana Pawła II 7831-571 Kraków

Poland

Czasopismo ANTROPOMOTORYKA jest umieszczone na liście rankingowej INDEX COPERNICUS

Korekta językowa: Barbara Przybyło

© Copyright by University School of Physical Education in Cracow

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NR 51 2010AN TRO PO MO TO RY KA

CONTENTS

From Editors: 51st issue of Antropomotoryka-Kinesiology, English version 7Information for the Authors 9

DISSERTATIONS AND ARTICLESZbigniew Borysiuk, Wacław Petryński, Wojciech J. Cynarski

Reaction time, movement time and EMG signals as indicators of anticipation processes in elite fencers 15

Adam Kawczyński, Dariusz Mroczek, Jan ChmuraMovement time of elite volleyball players during the game 25

Edward Mleczko, Jerzy JanuszewskiThe relation between the training load and the results in the 10 and 20 km sport walks of Polish race walkers 31

Anna Tyka, Tomasz Pałka, Aleksander Tyka, Tomasz Cisoń, Szczepan Wiecha, Aleksandra Stawiarska, Agata Cebula Anaerobic threshold determination based on changes in rms-EMG curve and respiratory parameters 41

Igor StirnAssessment of some morphological characteristics and specific motor abilities in young water polo players in three different age groups 45

Andrzej SorokaThe rank of one-on-one duels based on Women’s European Football Championship – England 2005 53

Wanda Pilch, Marta Szarek, Dorota Gryka-Nowaczyk, Michał Kaczmarek, Wacław MirekThe influence of physical effort in warm conditions on changing the white blood cells number in training and non-training men 61

Jadwiga Szymura, Marcin Maciejczyk, Joanna Gradek, Magdalena Więcek, Jerzy Cempla, Marek BawelskiThe physiological cost of walking in overfat girls 69

Jan Ślężyński, Ilona Ślężyńska, Marzena ŚlężyńskaPhysical fitness progression in women with obesity under the influence of regular physical activity 79

Vytė Kontautienė, Audronius VilkasAbility to self-control in the context of physical activity in schoolchildren at the age of 10–11 87

REVIEW PAPERSLarysa Genrichovna Shakhlina, Teresa Socha

Puberty phase in girls – key questions in connection with sport mastery 97

ANNOUNCEMENTSWaldemar Makuła

My review on the 6th World Ageing & Generations Congres, St. Gallen, 25–28 August 2010 111

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SPIS TREŚCI

Od Redakcji: 51. numer czasopisma Antropomotoryka-Kinesiology – edycja w języku angielskim 7Informacje dla Autorów 11

ROZPRAWY I ARTYKUŁYZbigniew Borysiuk, Wacław Petryński, Wojciech J. Cynarski

Czas reakcji, czas ruchu i sygnały EMG jako wskaźniki procesów przewidywania u szermierzy wyczynowych 15

Adam Kawczyński, Dariusz Mroczek, Jan ChmuraCzas wykonania ruchu podczas meczu u siatkarzy reprezentujących najwyższy poziom mistrzostwa sportowego 25

Edward Mleczko, Jerzy JanuszewskiZwiązki między obciążeniem treningowym a wynikami w chodzie sportowym na 10 i 20 km polskich chodziarzy 31

Anna Tyka, Tomasz Pałka, Aleksander Tyka, Tomasz Cisoń, Szczepan Wiecha, Aleksandra Stawiarska, Agata Cebula Wyznaczanie progu anaerobowego u sportowców metodą oddechową I elektromiograficzną 41

Igor StirnOcena wybranych cech morfologicznych I sprawności specjalnej młodych zawodników uprawiających piłkę wodną w trzech okresach ontogenezy 45

Andrzej SorokaRanga pojedynków 1×1 na przykładzie Mistrzostw Europy w Piłce Nożnej Kobiet – Anglia 2005 53

Wanda Pilch, Marta Szarek, Dorota Gryka-Nowaczyk, Michał Kaczmarek, Wacław MirekWpływ wysiłku fizycznego w podwyższonej temperaturze otoczenia na zmiany w obrazie białokrwinkowym u trenujących i nietrenujących mężczyzn 61

Jadwiga Szymura, Marcin Maciejczyk, Joanna Gradek, Magdalena Więcek, Jerzy Cempla, Marek BawelskiKoszt fizjologiczny wysiłków marszowych u dziewcząt o nadmiernym stopniu otłuszczenia ciała 69

Jan Ślężyński, Ilona Ślężyńska, Marzena ŚlężyńskaPoprawa sprawności fizycznej kobiet z otyłością pod wpływem regularnej aktywności ruchowej 79

Vytė Kontautienė, Audronius VilkasZdolność do samokontroli w kontekście aktywności fizycznej u uczniów w wieku 10–11 lat 87

PRACE PRZEGLĄDOWELarysa Genrichovna Shakhlina, Teresa Socha

Zagadnienie fazy pokwitania dziewcząt w problematyce szkolenia sportowego kobiet 97

INFORMACJEWaldemar Makuła

Moja ocena obrad 6. Światowego Kongresu Starzenia się Pokoleń, St. Gallen, 25–28 sierpnia 2010 111

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FROM EDITORS OD REDAKCJI

51st ISSUE OF ANTROPOMOTORYKA-KINESIOLOGY, ENGLISH VERSION

51. NUMER CZASOPISMA ANTROPOMOTORYKA--KINESIOLOGY – EDYCJA W JĘZYKU ANGIELSKIM

Dear readers and co-workers,

We would like to present the newest English issue of our quarterly released thanks to two sponsors: University School of Physical Education in Cracow and University School of Physical Education in Wroclaw. This is the second number of our quarterly issued in English this year. Hopefully, we have proved that we have all po-tential to publish Antropomotoryka-Kinesiology alter-nately in two semiannual versions: Polish and English. Publications written in English, exported worldwide, are the best example of familiarizing a large international audience with the works and achievements of Polish and foreign scientists. Our magazine, the character of which is changing into international, gets stronger and becomes more popular. In this issue we present works of Polish, Lithuanian, Slovenian and Ukrainian authors, divided into sections: empirical work, survey and re-view.

I believe that we have managed to meet the readers’ needs, and select worth reading texts by Polish and fo-reign scientists, who have penetrated a wide area of human activity, noticed from the sport, therapeutic, recreational and habitual viewpoints on different sta-ges of ontogenesis. In the section devoted to empirical works, the audience can fi nd ten articles in the majori-ty exploring the topics of professional improvement in connection with various sports effects.

In the publication dedicated to Reaction time, move-ment time and EMG signals as indicators of anticipation processes in elite fencers the authors concentrates on estimation the meaning of predicting fencer’s move-ment activity. According to them:

„Anticipation is predicting an occurrence, using perceptions, experience and imagining of a situation and/or the aim of an action. Anticipation makes it possible to program appropriate movements in advance, or adjust them to a foreseen situation before any inter-ference.”

The study sample consisted of 12 advanced active epee fencers. Two were applied: temporal anticipation test and spatial anticipation test, preceded by a simple reaction control test. The tests were carried out with the aid of surface electromyography (EMG). The results of the study showed that anticipation (time and spatial) exerts a signifi cant impact on the reduction of time of sensorimotor responses, particularly in RT (simple re-action time).

The following work: Movement time of elite volley-ball players during the game is concluded that the phy-siological load and the increased stimulation of central nervous system in volleyball players allow them to ma-intain the time of a movement on a relatively constant level during the entire duration of the match effort.

In the publication: The relation between the training load and the results in the 10 and 20 km race walks of Polish race walkers chosen aspects of Polish race walkers training concerning the elite of youngest conte-stants at various stages of their athletic mastery were presented.

A team of Cracow representatives in their study: Anaerobic threshold determination based on changes in rms-EMG curve and respiratory parameters compa-re two methods of anaerobic threshold (AT) determina-tion – respiratory parameters analysis and changes in rms-EMG curve. The rms-EMG curve analyses provide the results of the same accuracy but faster and in more

From Editors

– 8 –

convenient way, in comparison to other methods of AT determination.

The aim of the Slovenian researcher from the Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, is to ascertain which of the special skill tests contribute most to the differentiation of three different age groups of water polo players. In his article (Assessment of some mor-phological characteristics and specifi c motor abilities in young water polo players in three different age groups) it turns out to be that the best were differentiated by ball handling tests. This might be the cause of a well-known principle of motor learning considered in a training pro-cess – simpler motor skills without a ball are developed fi rst and are later upgraded to more demanding ball handling skills.

The author of The rank of one-on-one duels ba-sed on Women’s European Football Championship – England 2005 claims that the effectiveness of one-on-one game in defence formation has reached the highest value, whereas among the players of attack line this game element has appeared least effective. Within analyzed technical elements, the biggest infl u-ence on the victory had effi ciently performed one-on--one duels in defensive and offensive actions. Lesser but also equally essential infl uence on the success, had accurate ball passes and the effectiveness of enforcing the execution of dead-ball situations.

Cracovian scientists present the results of their work on The infl uence of physical effort in warm conditions on changing the white blood cells number in training and non-training men. The study involved two groups of ten healthy men. The fi rst group consisted of ten medium-and long-distance runners who had similar aerobic working capacity as well as similar length of training. This study showed that the physical effort in warm and humid conditions results in decrease of body mass and the plasma volume contraction in both groups. Before and after the test both the body weight and the core tem-perature of the subjects were measured and monitored during the exercise. In the blood samples collected be-fore and after the test the total protein level and hema-tological indexes were determined. Moreover, the work done by the athletes who caused the increase in the core temperature by 1.2 ºC was signifi cantly harder.

The article: The physiological cost of walking in overfat girls is aimed at determining physiological cost

of locomotion effort of girls aged about 10 years with excessive body fat pracising treadmill walking at vari-ous speeds. Higher values of VO2, %VO2max, %VEmax and %HRmax during locomotion effort of overfat girls at the same intensity of test exertion indicate a higher cost of physical exercise incurred by overfat girls.

The objective of the text Physical fi tness progres-sion in women with obesity under the infl uence of regular physical activity is to prove that regular physical activity combined with rational lifestyle exerts positive infl uence on physical fi tness improvement, fat reduc-tion and weight loss in obese women. The researchers show that these nine months of regular physical activity played a signifi cant role in physical fi tness improvement and the reduction of adipose tissue in tested women.

Lithuanian scientists present the results of their re-search on Ability to self-control in the context of physi-cal activity of schoolchildren at the age of 10–11. The research proves that pupils aged 10–11 show a limited capacity for self-testing of physical fi tness, lack of self--control habits, physical fi tness, tracking and correction of pulse rate and breathing IR.

The survey work of Puberty phase in girls – key questions in connection with sport mastery by the Ukrainian-Polish team of authors, Larysa G. Shakhlina and Teresa Socha, presents and analyses several aspects of key questions important for girls’ puberty phases, focusing on its signifi cance to sport selection and training loads.

I strongly recommend a very interesting report My review on the Sixth World Ageing & Generations Congress, St. Gallen: 25–28 August 2010 written from the attendant’s viewpoint.

I believe that this issue of our magazine will provide our readers just what they need – a good portion of knowledge concentrated on human kinetics in different stages of ontogenesis and possibilities of practical use of it. With the hope you will enjoy the reading, I wo-uld like to send you greetings from the Royal City of Cracow.

Edward Mleczko

Editor-in-Chiefof Antropomotoryka-Kinesiology

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INFORMATION FOR THE AUTHORS

1. “Kinesiology” (“Antropomotoryka”) is an offi cial scientifi c quarterly of the International Association of Sport Kinetics – IASK, pub lished at the University School of Physical Edu-cation, Cracow, Poland under the auspices of the Committee Rehabilitation, Physical Education and Social Integration the Polish Acad emy of Sciences.

The magazine presents the results of original re search work and experiments in the fi eld of human mo to r icity and re lated sciences. It also publishes review ar ticles, opinion ar ticles and discussion of scientists evalu ating the current situation and perspectives of sci en tifi c de vel opment of human motoricity.

2. Materials for publication (one copy of computer printouts) should be sent together with the compact disc at the following address: Redakcja “Antropomotoryki”, Akademia Wychowa-nia Fizycznego, al. Jana Pawła II 78, 31-571 Kraków, tel. 12 683 12 78, tel/fax 12 683 10 76 or at the e-mail address: [email protected].

3. General conditions:• Upon submitting a paper to be published the Author

(Authors) trans fers copyright to the Publishing House of the “Antro po mo to ryka”. The works qualifi ed for pub li cation become therefore the prop erty of the Publishing House of the “Antro po mo to ryka” and cannot be published in extenso or in fragments in other pe ri odi cals or other media without the written per mission of the Publisher. The work submitted for publication in the “Antro po mo to ryka” cannot be submitted for pub li cation ear lier on or simultaneously in any other pe ri odical. The Author is required to make a written statement to this effect. If the work in cludes any fi gures, tables, etc. which have al ready been pub-lished elsewhere, the Author is obliged to obtain a written per mission for re printing.

• “Antropomotoryka” accepts demonstrative, origi nal, experimental, and historical papers, in for mation about conferences, reports from con gresses and con ferences on human motoricity, short summa ries of works pub-lished in foreign pe ri odi cals and book re views on human motoricity. Origi nal works are accepted in En glish.

• The works of particular sci en tifi c value sub mitted and accepted for pub li cation earlier on in a for eign sci en-

tifi c periodical can also be submitted for publication in the “Antro po mo to ryka”, however, on condition that the Author ob tains a permission from the publisher of the pe ri odical.

• All papers should be no longer than 22 pages with 1800 letters per page (i.e. 30 lines 60 points each). They should be in double-spaced or 1,5 spaced typewriting on one side of the paper only.

4. Rules of constructing the work:• The accompanying letter should contain both home and

offi ce addresses and the information at which address to send the correspondence.

• Empirical works should contain the following in for mation: title, name(s) of the author(s), key words in Polish and in English, brief summary in Polish, summary in English (as mentioned above), in tro duction, ma terial, methods, results and dis cussion, con clusions and bib li og ra phy.

• The number of key words should be from 3 to 15.• The summary has to contain: the purpose of the work,

material, methods, results and con clusions.• The fi rst page should contain the information in the

following order: title, name(s) of the author(s), scientifi c degree(s) of the author(s) and the pro fessional affi liation, including the address, key words, brief summary in Polish and in English. The summary should not contain less than 200 and no more than 250 words.

• The reference materials should be listed on a sepa rate sheet of paper. Only the aterials the Author refers to in the text may be included. They should be num bered using Arabic numerals and placed in the order they are quoted in the work (not in the alphabetic order). Each item of the reference materials should be written in a new verse. The surname(s) of the author(s) of the quoted work should be followed by the initials of their fi rst name(s), then the original title of the maga zine where the work was published should be given. The abbre viation of the title of a magazine should be taken from the Index Medicus (or In ter na tional Committee of Medical Journal Editors: Uni form Re quirements for manu scripts submit-ted in bio medical jour nals. N Engl J Med 1997; 336, 309–315).

Information for the Authors

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Examples:a) works printed in magazines:

• Casella R, Bubendorf L, Sauter G, Moch H, Michatsch MJ, Gasser TC: Focal neu roen do crine differentiation lacks prognostics sig nifi cance in prostate core needle biopsies. J Urol, 1998; 160: 406–410.

b) monographs:• Matthews DE, Farewell VT: Using and Un der-

standing Medical Statistics, ed 3, re vised. Basel, Karger, 1966.

c) chapters in textbooks:• Parren PWHI, Burton DR: Antibodies against

HIV-1 from phage display libraries; Mapping of an immune response and progress towards antiviral immu no therapy; in Capra JD (ed.): An ti body En-gineering, Chem. Immunol. Basel, Karger, 1997, 65: 18–56.

• Kokot F: Fizjologia nerek; w. Zieliński J, Leń ko J (eds): Urologia, War sza wa, PZWL, 1992, 1: 9–20.

All the illustrations have to be of high quality. Graphic material should be submitted on white sheets of pa per. Copies of photographs and pho to graphs should be sub-mitted on glossy paper. The con secutive num ber of the photograph should be written with a soft pencil on the back side of each photograph as well as an arrow marking its top edge. Only black and white pictures are printed. Scales and pictures should be placed on separate pages and numbered with Arabic numerals. The headings, descrip-tions and suscriptions under the pictures and above the scales should be written in Polish and English.

Example in Polish: Tabela 1., Ryc. 1., Objaśnienia, Chłopcy Example in English: Table 1., Fig. 1., Commentary, Boys Please, use round pa ren the ses. Physical or chemical

for mu lae should be written clearly. This re fers par ticu larly to in di ces and ex po nents.

The article can be written using the editor of MS Word 6.0 to 2007 or Open Offi ce, preferably DOC or RTF for-mat. Illustrations and tables should be packed in sepa rate fi les and, on the printouts, the place where they are to be included should be marked in pencil. The graphs made in black. It is permissible to use gray tints with various shades of intensity and texture. While typing the descriptions uni-form char ac ter we kindly ask used due to esthetic reasons, e.g., arial. Bold print, italics, etc., should be limited to the nec essary mini mum. While scanning the illus trations, the dis tri bution should be at least 300 dpi. Black and white illustrations (line art) should be sent in TIFF for mat and pictures (gray) – in TIFF or JPEG format (at the low degree of com pression, up to 10%). All the fi les should be packed using RAR or ZIP. After copying them on CD it is necessary to check if all the fi les are copied.

The reference materials should be given in the order of quotation.[1] Żekoński Z, Wolański N: Warunki społeczno-by to we

jako czynniki rozwoju człowieka w Wo lań ski N (red.): Czynniki rozwoju człowieka. War sza wa, PWN, 1987, 68–88.

[2] Malarecki I: Zarys fi zjologii wysiłku i treningu spor to we-go. Warszawa, Sport i Turystyka, 1975.

[3] Bouchard C, Malina RM: Genetics of phy sio lo gi cal fi t ness and motor performance. Exerc. Sport. Sc. Rev. 1983; 11: 112–115.

[4] Szopa J: W poszukiwaniu struktury mo to rycz no ści: ana li za czynnikowa cech somatycznych, funk cjo nal-nych i prób spraw no ści fi zycznej u dziewcząt i chłop-ców w wie ku 8–19 lat. Wyd. Monografi czne, Kraków, AWF, 1983; 35.

While quoting the reference materials in the text, only squ-are parentheses with the number of the quoted item in Arabic numerals should be given. When qu oting two or more works the square parentheses sho uld con ta in the chronological or der of their pu bli ca tion.

5. Editors’ remarks• All the materials are evaluated and anonymously re-

viewed.• The reviewers’ opinion is passed on to the Author by the

editor.• The proof copy of the article will be emailed to the Author

as a PDF fi le. When the necessary corrections are made and the article is approved of by the Author, it should be emailed back within 10 days to the editorial board of “Antropomotoryka – Kinesiology”. A delay in sending back the article may postpone its printing till the next issue of the magazine.

• The Publisher of “Antropomotoryka – Kinesiology” reserves the right to do stylistic revisions as well as the possible right to correct nomenclature and to shorten texts.

• The article (with a written statement – see: General condi-tions) should be sent with a cover letter signed by a senior reasercher, who is responsible for the content of the of the article.

• The Author gets a free copy of “Antropomotoryka – Kine-siology” in PDF format. The magazine in book form can be ordered on condition of payment at the e-mail address: [email protected] when the corrected proof copy is returned.

• Current copies of Antropomotoryka and those from the fi les can be ordered on condition of payment from Kra kowska Księgarnia Kultury Fizycznej, al. Jana Pawła II 78, 31-571 Kraków, tel/fax (012) 681 36 22.

• Summaries in Polish and English can be found at the following Internet addresses: www.awf.krakow.pl; link: wydawnictwa, czasopisma, antropomotoryka, and www.journals.indexcopernicus.com.

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1. „Antropomotoryka” („Kinesiology”) jest ofi cjal nym, re-cenzowanym kwartalnikiem na uko wym Mię dzy na ro do we go Stowarzyszenia Mo to ry ki Spor to wej – IASK, wy da wa nym w Akademii Wy cho wa nia Fi zycz ne go w Kra ko wie pod pa tro-na tem Ko mi te tu Rehabilitacji, Kultury Fizycznej i Integracji Społecznej PAN. W cza so piśmie przed sta wia ne są wyniki ory gi nal nych ba dań i do świad czeń w dzie dzi nie mo to rycz no-ści czło wie ka oraz dziedzin po krew nych. Za miesz cza ne są również pra ce prze glądo we, poglądy oraz dys ku sje oceniające obec ny stan i per spek ty wy rozwoju do rob ku ba daw cze go sze ro ko po ję tej an tro po mo to ry ki.

2. Materiały przeznaczone do druku (jeden egzemplarz wydruku komputerowego) należy przesłać łącznie z płytą CD na adres: Redakcja „Antropomotoryki”, Akademia Wy-chowania Fizycznego, al. Jana Pawła II 78, 31-571 Kraków, tel. 12 683 12 78, tel./fax 12 683 10 76 lub na adres poczty elektronicznej e-mail: [email protected].

3. Warunki ogólne• Zgłoszenie pracy do druku jest jed no znacz ne z prze-

kazaniem przez au to ra (au to rów) prawa do własności Redakcji „An tro po mo to ry ki”. Prace za kwa li fi ko wa ne do wy dru ko wa nia stają się zatem wy łącz ną własnością Re-dak cji i nie można ich pu bli ko wać w całości lub w części w in nych cza so pi smach lub mediach cyfrowych bez pi sem nej zgo dy Wydawcy. Praca złożona do druku w „Antropomotoryce” nie może być także wcześniej ani równocześnie złożona w in nym cza so pi śmie, co stwierdza autor w pi sem nym oświad cze niu. W razie umieszczenia w pracy rycin lub ta bel itp., pochodzących z opra co wań opu bli ko wa nych w innych cza so pi smach autor ma obo wią zek uzy ska nia zgody na przedruk.

• Redakcja „Antropomotoryki” przyjmuje do dru ku pra ce poglądowe, oryginalne, doświadczalne, opra co wa nia hi sto rycz ne, komunikaty kon fe ren cyj ne, spra woz da nia ze zjaz dów i konferencji o tema ty ce an tro po mo to rycz nej oraz krót kie stresz cze nia prac wy dru ko wa nych w czaso-pi smach za gra nicz nych i recenzje książek z za kre su teorii mo to rycz ności czło wie ka. Pra ce przeglądowe i ory gi nal ne będą zre da go wa ne w ję zy ku polskim. Ar ty-kuły mogą być pu bli ko wa ne w ję zy ku angielskim.

• Prace przed sta wia ją ce dużą war tość na ukową, za kwa-li fi ko wa ne wcze śniej do wy dru ko wa nia w cza so pi śmie za gra nicz nym, mogą być rów nież zgło szo ne do druku w „An tro po mo to ry ce”, jed nak pod wa run kiem uzyskania przez autora pi sem nej zgo dy Wy daw cy cza so pi sma, w któ rym teksty zostały lub zo staną opu bli ko wa ne.

• Objętość artykułu nie powinna przekraczać 22 stron wy-druku komputerowego, na których zamieszczono po 1800 znaków (np.: 30 wierszy po 60 znaków). Praca musi być napisana jednostronnie z podwójną lub 1,5 interlinią.

4. Zasady konstrukcji pracy• W liście towarzyszącym prosimy podać do kład ne ad re sy

(zarówno prywatny, jak i miejsca pra cy) z zaznaczeniem, gdzie należy przesyłać ko re spon den cję.

• Prace empiryczne powinny mieć następujący układ: ty tuł, imię (imiona) i nazwisko autora (ów), słowa klu czo we w ję-zyku polskim i angielskim, zwięzłe stresz cze nie w języku polskim i an giel skim, wstęp, materiał i metody, wyniki ba dań, dys ku sja, wnioski oraz wy kaz piśmiennictwa.

• Słowa kluczowe powinny liczyć od 3 do 15 wy ra zów. • Streszczenie musi zawierać: cel pracy, materiał, me to dy

lub materiał i metody, wyniki, wnioski.• Na pierwszej stronie opracowania należy za mie ścić

w ko lej ności: tytuł pracy w języku polskim i an giel skim, imię i na zwi sko autora(ów), stopień na uko wy au to ra(ów), miejsce za kła du pra cy, sło wa kluczowe oraz zwięzłe stresz cze nie po pol sku i an giel sku. Jego objętość nie może być mniejsza niż 200 i nie większa niż 250 słów.

• Spis piśmiennictwa należy wydrukować na osob nej stro nie. Prosimy wymienić w nim jedynie po zy cje, na które autor powołuje się w tekście. Po win ny być one nu me ro wa ne cy fra mi arabskimi i usze re go wa ne w ko-lejności cytowania ich w pra cy (a nie w kolejności al fa be-tycz nej). Każdą po zy cję piśmiennictwa należy zapisywać od no we go wiersza. Po nazwisku autora (lub wszyst kich au to rów) cytowanej pracy należy po dać pierw sze li te ry imion, a następnie tytuł pracy w brzmie niu ory gi nal nym oraz nazwę czasopisma, z któ re go praca pochodzi. Skrót tytułu cza so pi sma na leży podać zgodnie z jego brzmie niem w Index Medicus (patrz rów nież: International Com mit tee of Medical Jo ur nal Editors: Uniform re qu ire ments for ma nu-

INFORMACJE DLA AUTORÓW

Informacje dla Autorów

– 12 –

scripts sub mit ted to bio me di cal jo ur nals. N Engl J Med 1997; 336; 309–315).

Przykłady:a) prace wydrukowane w cza so pi smach:

• Casella R, Bubendorf L, Sauter G, Moch H, Michatsch MJ, Gasser TC: Focal neu ro en do cri-ne dif fe ren tia tion lacks pro gno stic si gni fi cian ce in pro sta te core needle biopsies. J Urol, 1998; 160: 406–410.

b) monografi e:• Matthews DE, Farewell VT: Using and Un der-

stan ding Me di cal Statistics, ed 3, re vi sed. Ba sel, Karger, 1996.

c) rozdziały w książkach:• Parren PWHI, Burton DR: Antibodies aga inst

HIV-1 from phage display libraries; Map ping of an im mu ne response and progress towards antiviral im mu no the ra py; in Ca pra JD (ed.): An ti bo dy En-gi ne ering. Chem Immunol. Ba sel, Kar ger, 1997, 65: 18–56.

• Kokot F: Fizjologia nerek; w Zieliński J, Leń ko J (red.): Uro lo gia, Warszawa, PZWL, 1992, 1: 9–20.

Materiał ilustracyjny musi mieć bardzo dobrą ja kość. Po-wi nien być wykonany na białych kart kach. Re pro duk cje zdjęć oraz fotografi e należy przy go to wać na błysz czą cym papierze fo to gra fi cz nym. Na od wro cie fo to gra fi i trzeba napisać mięk kim ołów kiem jej kolejny numer oraz zazna-czyć strzałką, gdzie znaj du je się jej górny brzeg. Redakcja dru ku je je dy nie zdję cia czarno-białe. Tabele i ryciny na-leży zamieszczać na oddzielnych stronach i nu me ro wać cyframi arabskimi. Ich nagłówki, ob ja śnie nia oraz podpisy pod rycinami i nad tabelami powinny być w języku polskim i angielskim. Przy kład:

Tabela 1., Ryc. 1., Objaśnienia, Chłopcy Table 1., Fig. 1., Commentary, Boys Prosimy używać nawiasów okrą głych. Wzory mu szą być

napisane czytelnie, szcze gól nie wskaźni ki i wykładniki potęg.

Artykuł może być napisany na edytorze od Word 6.0 do

2007, Open Offi ce, w for ma cie DOC lub RTF. Ilu stra cje, ta be le i wy kre sy powinny być za miesz czo ne w osobnych plikach, a na wydrukach oraz na mar gi ne sie za zna czo ne ołów kiem ich miej sce w tekście. Wykresy na le ży wy ko nać w kolorze czar nym. Moż na stosować tin ty szare o różnym na tęże niu lub tek stu ry. W opisach, ze względów es te tycz-nych, prosimy stosować czcionkę jed no ele men to wą (np. arial). Nie należy nad uży wać wyróżnień (bold, ita lic). Przy ska no wa nych ilustracjach rozdzielczość musi wy no sić co najmniej 300 dpi. Ilustracje czar no-białe (line art.) po win ny być w formacie TIFF, a zdjęcia (grey) w for ma cie TIFF lub JPEG (w ni skim stopniu kompresji, do 10%). Wszystkie pli ki mogą być spa ko wa ne RAR-em lub ZIP-em. Po sko pio wa niu na CD należy spraw dzić, czy wszyst kie pliki się kopiują.

Spis piśmiennictwa powinien być sporządzony we dług ko lej no ści cytowania:[1] Żekoński Z, Wolański N: Warunki społeczno-by to we

jako czynniki rozwoju człowieka; w Wo lań ski N (red.): Czyn ni ki rozwoju człowieka. Warszawa, PWN, 1987; 68–88.

[2] Malarecki I: Zarys fi zjologii wysiłku i treningu spor to-we go. Warszawa, Sport i Turystyka, 1975.

[3] Bouchard C, Malina RM: Genetics of phy sio lo gi cal fi t ness and motor performance. Exerc Sport Sc Rev, 1983; 11: 112–115.

[4] Szopa J: W poszukiwaniu struktury mo to rycz no ści: ana li za czynnikowa cech somatycznych, funk cjo nal-nych i prób spraw no ści fi zycznej u dziewcząt i chłop-ców w wie ku 8–19 lat. Wyd. Monografi czne, Kra ków, AWF, 1988; 35.

Powołując się w tekście na daną pozycję pi śmien nic twa na le-

ży podać w nawiasie kwadratowym tylko cy frę arab ską. Przy ta cza jąc dwie lub większą ich licz bę należy podawać w na wia sie kwa dra to wym ko lej ność chro no lo gicz ną ich wy da nia.

5. Uwagi Redakcji• Wszystkie prace podlegają ocenie i są ano ni mo wo re cen-

zo wa ne.• Redakcja zapoznaje autora z uwagami re cen zen tów.• Odbitka szczotkowa pracy jest wysyłana do Autora pocztą

elektroniczną jako plik PDF. Po niezbędnej korekcie i akceptacji pracy do druku należy ją odesłać w terminie do 10 dni na adres e-mail Redakcji „Antropomotoryki”. Przetrzymywanie korekty może spowodować przesunięcie artykułu do następnego numeru.

• Redakcja „Antropomotoryki” zastrzega sobie prawo adiu-stacji, dokonywania poprawek w zakresie ujednolicania nazewnictwa i ewentualnego skracania tekstów.

• Przysyłane do druku artykuły (wraz z oświadczeniem – patrz: Warunki ogólne) powinny być kierowane do Redak-cji pismem przewodnim podpisanym przez samodzielnego pracownika nauki, równocześnie odpowiadającego za merytoryczną stronę opracowania.

• Autor otrzymuje bezpłatnie plik PDF z zawartością nu-meru „Antropomotoryki”, w którym zamieszczono jego pracę. Czasopismo w formie książkowej można zamówić odpłatnie przy zwrocie korekty autorskiej pod adresem: [email protected].

• Pełne numery bieżące i archiwalne „An tro po mo to ry ki” moż na zamówić odpłatnie w Krakowskiej Księ gar ni Kultury Fizycznej, al. Jana Pawła II 78, 31-571 Kra ków, tel/fax (012) 681 36 22.

• Streszczenia w języku polskim i angielskim są zamiesz-czone na stronie internetowej: www.awf.krakow.pl; link: wydawnictwa, czasopisma, antropomotoryka oraz www.journals.indexcopernicus.com.

DISSERTATIONS AND ARTICLESROZPRAWY I ARTYKUŁY

– 15 –

REACTION TIME, MOVEMENT TIME AND EMG SIGNALS AS INDICATORS OF ANTICIPATION

PROCESSES IN ELITE FENCERS

CZAS REAKCJI, CZAS RUCHU I SYGNAŁY EMG JAKO WSKAŹNIKI PROCESÓW PRZEWIDYWANIA

U SZERMIERZY WYCZYNOWYCH

Zbigniew Borysiuk*, Wacław Petryński**, Wojciech J. Cynarski***

*** Dr. habil., Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Opole University of Technology, Opole, Poland*** PhD, Faculty of Tourism, Katowice School of Economics, Katowice, Poland*** Dr. habil., Faculty of Physical Education, University of Rzeszów, Poland

Source of support: The work was carried out in relation with statutory activities the Faculty of Physical Education URWWF/S/09 Rzeszow University fi nanced by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education

Key words: surface electromyography, temporal anticipation, fencingSłowa kluczowe: elektromiografia powierzchniowa, przewidywanie czasowe,

szermierka

Anticipation is predicting an occurrence, using perceptions, experience and imagining of a situation and/or the aim of an action. Anticipation makes it possible to program appropriate movements in advance, or adjust them to a foreseen situation before any interferences. The study sample consisted of 12 advanced active epee fencers (average age 22.1 years). Their average training experience was 8.3 years. Two simple reaction tests were applied: temporal anticipation test and spatial anticipation test, preceded by a simple reaction control test. The tests were carried out with the aid of surface electromyography (EMG). In the control test the subjects’ mean reaction time (RT) amounted to 161 ms. Due to temporal anticipation the RT was reduced to 117 ms, and due to spatial anticipation to 120 ms. No significant effects of anticipation on movement time (MT) was observed. A significant change was noted, however, in the EMG signal, especially in terms of temporal anticipation. The results of the study showed that anticipation (time and spatial) exerts a significant impact on the reduction of time of sensorimotor responses, particularly in RT. Also in the temporal anticipation test a significant reduction of movement time (MT) (p < 0, 00) was noticed. The mean EMG signal values constituted a linear trend up to 235µV for the control test, and up to 917µV for the time anticipation test.

Przewidywanie polega na odgadnięciu przyszłego wydarzenia z wykorzystaniem postrzegania, doświad-czenia i wyobrażenia jakiejś sytuacji i/lub celu działania. Przewidywanie umożliwia zaprogramowanie z wyprze-dzeniem odpowiednich ruchów lub dostosowanie ich do przewidywanej sytuacji. Grupa badawcza składała się z 12 doświadczonych, czynnych szpadzistów (przeciętny wiek: 22,1 lat). Ich przeciętny staż zawodniczy wynosił 8,3 roku. Zastosowano dwie próby reakcji prostej: próbę przewidywania czasowego i próbę przewidywania prze-strzennego. Poprzedzono je kontrolną próbą reakcji prostej. W badaniach zastosowano metodę elektromiografii powierzchniowej (sEMG). W próbie kontrolnej przeciętny czas reakcji (RT) badanych wynosił 161 ms. Wskutek


SUMMARY • STRESZCZENIE

Zbigniew Borysiuk, Wacław Petryński, Wojciech J. Cynarski

– 16 –

przewidywania czasowego RT obniżył się do 117 ms, a wskutek przewidywania przestrzennego – do 120 ms. Nie stwierdzono znaczącego wpływu przewidywania na czas ruchu (MT). Zaobserwowano natomiast istotną zmianę sygnału EMG, zwłaszcza w odniesieniu do przewidywania czasowego. W wyniku badań wykazano, że przewidy-wania (czasowe i przestrzenne) wywierają znaczny wpływ na obniżenie czasu odpowiedzi czuciowo-ruchowej, w szczególności na czas reakcji RT. W próbach przewidywania czasowego zaobserwowano również znaczące (p < 0, 00) zmniejszenie czasu ruchu (MT). W próbie kontrolnej średnie wartości EMG wykazały liniowy wzrost do 235 µV, natomiast w próbie przewidywania czasowego – do 917 µV.

Introduction

Figure 1 presents a modifi ed Schmidt’s model of sen-sorimotor response to a stimulus (external or internal) [1, 2]. In a number of actions containing cyclic compo-nents, the effectiveness of their execution is achieved not through a response to an appearing stimulus, but through proper use of anticipation. In Figure 1 anticipa-tion is marked with A – preparation.

It can be stated that the effi ciency of motor responses in everyday life, e.g. driving a car, and in sport is strictly linked to the programming of sensorimotor responses with anticipation. According to Poulton [3] and others [4, 5] anticipation is mental prediction of an occurrence using perception and imagination of a future situation and/or the aim of action. Anticipation enables program-ming effective motor actions, appropriate to expected situations with the aid of open-loop (non-feedback) controller. No time is then spent on identifi cation and processing information, and the speed and effi ciency of execution of a given action is signifi cantly increased. According to Poulton [3] such motor actions can be per-formed in a predictable environment. Anticipatory skills include the ability of coincidence, consisting of spatial, temporal and dynamic parameters and the aim of motor

and sport action. This coincidence is known as timing, which was defi ned by Hotz [6] as temporal punctuality in reference to a point in space, and as a functional abil-ity to fi nd oneself at the right time, in the right place with an optimal speed.

Anticipatory responses1 are strictly related to the decision-making stage (choice of reactions) of informa-tion processing. Reduction of the information process-ing time at this stage is possible thanks to anticipation.

According to some authors, a signifi cant decrease in the reaction time (RT) results from the so-called by-pass phenomenon (Fig. 2), i.e. bypassing the stage of reaction choice and proceeding directly to the stage of movement programming [7].

Rosenbaum’s model is partially incoherent. The event commencing the sequence of events is identifi -cation of an external stimulus, whereas the term “an-ticipatory reaction” refers to the very anticipation of the stimulus, before its physical appearance. In fact, the bypass includes not only the response choice stage but also the stimulus identifi cation stage – replaced by identifi cation of an internal stimulus, which is generated

1 Understood not as reactions to an external stimulus but to internal anticipation.

Figure 1. Structure of sensorimotor response according to Schmidt and Lee, modified (Petryński, 2002)

Attention

EMG Premotor RT

Reaction time (RT)

Motor response

A – Preparation B – Reaction C – Execution

Movement time (MT)

Motor RT

Stimulus Start of movement End of movement

Reaction time, movement time and EMG signals as indicators of anticipation process in elite fencers

– 17 –

Figure 2. Processing information with anticipation – bypass phenomenon (Rosenbaum, 1989)

Response choice

Response programming

Stimulus identification

Stimulus identification

Response choice

Response programming

Without anticipatory information

With anticipatory information

in the central nervous system on the basis of earlier experience, and is linked to a specifi c motor response.

A signifi cant factor was also mentioned by Feigenberg, who using Bernstein’s desire theory [8, 9] developed the probability anticipation theory [10, 11, 12] and examined its impact on the speed of reaction. These studies greatly contributed to the theoretical ex-planation of processes of programming and execution of an intended movement.

The classic model developed by Schmidt [1] is based on the division of a sensorimotor response into the reac-tion time (RT) and movement time (MT) phases. Schmidt then divides reaction time into two stages: premotor re-action time (PRT), i.e. the time between the appearance of the stimulus and the fi rst EMG changes; and motor reaction time (MRT), i.e. the time between the appear-ance of fi rst EMG changes and the start of movement. The PRT and MRT constitute the reaction time (RT). The movement time (MT) is defi ned as the time between the commencement of movement and its completion, e.g. pressing the button on the control panel.

In the opinion of many authors the MT is the time between the start of bioelectrical activity of a muscle and the completion of a specifi c motor action. According to Schmidt [1, 13] this interpretation lacks precision as the mere stimulation of neuromuscular junctions, which lasts up to several ms, does not evoke a mechanical movement (Fig. 2).

Both phases (RT and MT) constitute the sensorimo-tor response. Latash’s model [14], which corresponds to

the model in Figure 1, shows that RT is a measurable outcome of merely partially observed physiological phe-nomena. The RT comprises the following phases: stimu-lation of sense organs, fl ow of nervous impulses via af-ferent nerves, identifying and processing information in the central nervous system, generation of motor stimula-tion and its transfer via efferent nerves to the muscle.

In order to assess the anticipatory effect correctly, one must be certain beyond doubt that the process of anticipation takes place during the reaction time (RT) phase, and not during movement time (MT). This can be achieved with the aid of surface electromyography (sEMG), which can register RT and MT separately. A sEMG test will be successful providing a control test is run: during particular trials subjects should respond to stimuli emitted at random, which cannot be predicted in any way.

It should be emphasized that, according to its pre-cise defi nition, simple reaction is a response to a stim-ulus which is impossible to anticipate, and thus only a random test can yield reference values. A number of sports studies [15, 16] using EMG and video-recording showed that the anticipatory reactions were primarily effectively used by advanced athletes with long training experience. Such athletes apply anticipatory strategies, focusing their attention on initial signals, often imper-ceptible to novices, thanks to which they can prepare appropriate responses before hand. The anticipation processes involves spatial and temporal parameters. The former refer to the place of the anticipated occur-


– 18 –

rence; the latter to its time. In combat sports these two types of cannot be separated. A karate fi ghter, while commencing a series of hits and kicks, simultaneously anticipates the precise timing of the opponent’s at-tack and prepares a block to immediately proceed to counterattack. A fencer who anticipates the intentions of his opponent who is performing a feinted lunge at-tack on the torso, increases the distance making a step backward, takes an appropriate parry and ripostes with a thrust to an uncovered part of the target area. In the case of simultaneous, spatial and temporal anticipation, the motor response is primarily affected by the latter, which has been confi rmed by a number of experts in such sports as taekwondo, karate or fencing [17, 18].

When an attacking fencer uses a wide variety of of-fensive techniques, it is very diffi cult for the defending fencer to recognize a specifi c attack correctly. However, the latter can in all likelihood predict the timing of the attack. Combat sports are based on a kind of play or ex-change of anticipatory actions and counteractions. It is commonly assessed that proper anticipation can shor-ten the response time for 40 to 150 ms. This is enough time for a karate fi ghter to execute two hits, or a saber fencer to make two cuts [19]. The effectiveness of antici-patory reactions can derive from versatile training and perfecting of time and spatial anticipation skills.

In the present study the following research ques-tions were formulated: 1. To what extent does anticipatory information reduce

the reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT) in a sensorimotor response?

2. Which of the two types of anticipation is characte-rized by faster information processing?

3. Does the anticipation type affect the EMG signal value?

The research hypothesis assumed that the reac-tion and movement times of sensorimotor responses were seriously reduced in anticipatory reaction tests, and that the EMG signal was signifi cantly altered. Moreover, it was assumed that anticipation had a more signifi cant infl uence on the temporal rather than spatial para meters of a specifi c movement.

Material

Twelve advanced and active epee fencers (average age of 22.1 years) took part in the experiment. Their average training experience was 8.3 years, and they were at their specialist training stage.

The study was carried out in 2005/2006 and it was preceded with numerous pilot trials aimed at selection of the most appropriate assessment tools. All measure-ments were taken in the Chair of Physical Education and Sport of the Technical University of Opole. The range and methodology of the study were approved by the Research Bioethics Committee of the Opole Physicians’ Chamber.

The testing station with peripheral devices

The testing station consisted of a PC and an electro-myograph connected to two pairs of electrodes and the reference electrode through binary outlets (Picture 1).

Picture 1. A subject awaiting a visual signal (red light) is anticipat-ing a movement – pressing the red button on the control panel

The electrodes were attached to the subject’s skin on the fl exor carpi radialis. The electromyograph was connected to the control panel, constituting a complex information processing testing system.

Methods

Figure 3 shows the registered EMG curve with the val-ues of muscle bioelectrical activity (µV) on the y-axis. MRT (motor reaction time) and MT (movement time) values for each trial are presented. The red rectangles on the x-axis correspond to the random emission of red lights by the computer. The gaps between them are ir-regular: the fi gure illustrates the results of the spatial anticipation test and regular gaps, e.g. every 2 seconds, would distort the effect of temporal anticipation. Spatial and temporal anticipation. Two simple reac-tion tests were used in the experiment: temporal an-


– 19 –

ticipation test and spatial anticipation test. Testing fore-seen reactions consists of providing the subject with anticipatory information before a specifi c movement. This is why each trial should be preceded with a control test with signals emitted at random. The control test in the study was a simple reaction test to a visual stimu-lus. To make the entire procedure reliable the control test should be carried out 10 min before the real test, with the gap between the lights set at random from 1 to 5 seconds to eliminate the effect of temporal anticipa-tion. The subjects wore a pair of chloride electrodes on the dominant forearm.

During the temporal anticipation test each subject received 45 light signals in one color, at 2-sec. intervals. Earlier pilot tests proved the 2-sec. gaps to be optimal to reach the effect of temporal anticipation. The sub-jects were to press a panel button in the corresponding color. The reaction time (RT), movement time (MT) and sEMG signal values were registered.

The spatial anticipation test used a set of 45 signals emitted at random to eliminate the effect of time antici-pation. During the test the subjects could observe the current EMG curve at the top of the screen as well as the x-axis rectangles in colors corresponding to these of the signals, which served as anticipatory information about the appearing stimuli. While watching the EMG curve the subjects made anticipatory decisions about pressing different panel buttons. If the response was too early, i.e. before the appearance of the visual sig-nal, the computer registered it as an error. RT, MT and sEMG values were registered.

The software registered all test results and fed averaged values of particular parameters into the data base. The entered data could be instantly compared with earlier test results. The following statistical para meters

were measured: mean rank, total of ranks, mean and standard deviation. To compare the inner structure of the variables t-test for dependent variables was used. The obtained statistical results were presented in dia-grams with the mean and median values.

Results

The testing procedure of anticipatory reactions involved control test indexes referring to the two types of an-ticipatory simple reactions: temporal and spatial. The following indexes were used:RPRT – reaction time in a simple reaction test (control

test) RPMT – movement time in a simple reaction test (con-

trol test), RPEMG – EMG signal value in a simple reaction test

(control test), RACRT – temporal anticipation – reaction time, RACMT – temporal anticipation – movement time, RACEMG – temporal anticipation – EMG signal, RAPRT – spatial anticipation – reaction time, RAPMT – spatial anticipation – movement time, RAPEMG – spatial anticipation – EMG signal.

Table 1 and Figures 4a and 4b show that the ad-vanced fencers obtained the time of 160.83 ms in the control test (RPRT), 117.17 ms in the temporal anticipa-tion test (RACRT), and 120.42 ms in the spatial antici-pation test (RAPRT). These results point to a reduction of the reaction time due to anticipation. In the case of MT similar correlations were not noted. In the temporal anticipation test (RACMT) the subjects achieved the MT of 44.25 ms, i.e. signifi cantly reduced in compari-son with the control test results (69.00 ms); however,

Figure 3. The sEMG curve with RT and MT values and red rectangles on the x-axis illustrating the program of stimuli emission in the spatial anticipation test


– 20 –

in the spatial anticipation test (RAPMT), the movement time (MT) amounted to 86.00 ms.

The diagrams (Fig. 4a, 4b) for the median and mean values confi rm the expected increase in informa-tion processing in the latency phase due to anticipatory stimuli.

Table 2 shows that the mean EMG signal value in the control test (RPEMG) amounted to 235.50 µV; 917.92 µV in the temporal anticipation test (RACEMG); and 582.25 µV in the spatial anticipation test (RAPEMG). Despite the fact that the control test was carried out following the regular standards for simple reactions and that the random emission of signals made the subject concentrate their attention, the muscle bioelectric acti-vity was signifi cantly different between the control test and the anticipation tests.

The median and mean values in Figures 5a and 5b show that the fencers generated the highest bioelec-tric tension in muscles during the temporal anticipation

test, which forces the subject to anticipate specifi c time gaps. The widest span of results can be observed in the spatial anticipation test, which can be an indication of the high diffi culty level of this test to the subjects. The observed differences were also related to the risk of making errors, i.e. false starts which were not regis-tered by the computer.

The results of the t-test for dependent variables (Tab. 3) reveal statistical differences between the control test and anticipation test results at p < 0.00. There were no statistically signifi cant differences between the reac-tion times in the temporal and spatial anticipation tests (p < 0.718). It shows that the effects of anticipation are equally important for the spatial and temporal stimuli.

The data from Table 4 reveals a statistically signifi -cant difference (p < 0.00) between both tests (RACEMG and RAPEMG) as well as between the EMG signal in the control test (RPEMG) and the temporal and spatial

Wykres ramka-w sy

RPRT RPMT RACRT RACMT RA PRT RAPMT20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

[ms]

Mediana 25%-75% Min.-Maks.

Wykres ramka-w sy

RPRT RPMT RACRT RACMT RAPRT RAPMT20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

[ms]

rednia rednia±B d std rednia±Odch.std

median value mean value

Figures 4a, 4b. Median and mean values of reaction time and movement time indexes in the simple reaction test and temporal and spatial anticipation tests

Table 1. Variability of indexes of temporal and spatial anticipation and parameters of reaction time and movement time in the control test

Variable Mean rank Total of ranks Mean Standard deviation

RPRT 5.833 70.000 160.833 18.678

RPMT 2.000 24.000 69.000 11.529

RACRT 4.500 54.000 117.167 29.597

RACMT 1.000 12.000 44.250 11.443

RAPRT 4.583 55.000 120.417 30.300

RAPMT 3.083 37.000 86.000 16.164


– 21 –

Table 2. The variability of the EMG signal in the control test and temporal and spatial anticipation tests

Variable Mean rank Total of ranks Mean Standard deviation

RPEMG 1.000 12.000 235.500 29.525

RACEMG 3.000 36.000 917.917 116.241

RAPEMG 2.000 24.000 582.250 155.664

median value mean value

Figures 5a, 5b. Median and mean values of the EMG signal in the control test and temporal and spatial anticipation tests

W y k res ramk a-w s y

R PEMG R AC EMG R AP EM G0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

[mik

rovo

lty]

Mediana 25%-75%

Min.-Mak s .

W y k res ramk a-w s y

R PEMG R AC EMG R APEMG100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

1100

rednia rednia±B d s td rednia±Odc h.s td

Table 3. Differences between RT and MT in temporal and spatial anticipation and simple reaction tests

Variable Mean Standard deviation N Difference Standard deviation –

difference t df p

RPRT 160.833 18.6783

RACRT 117.167 29.5968 12 43.667 18.671 8.102 11 0.000

RPRT 160.833 18.6783

RAPRT 120.417 30.2999 12 40.417 24.344 5.751 11 0.000

RPMT 69.000 11.5286

RACMT 44.250 11.4425 12 24.750 10.101 8.488 11 0.000

RAPRT 120.417 30.2999

RACRT 117.167 29.5968 12 3.250 30.371 0.371 11 0.718

RAPMT 86.000 16.1639

RPMT 69.000 11.5286 12 17.000 12.820 4.593 11 0.001

RAPMT 86.000 16.1639

RACMT 44.250 11.4425 12 41.750 13.505 10.709 11 0.000


– 22 –

Table 4. Differences between the EMG signal values in simple reaction and temporal and spatial anticipation tests

Variable Mean Standard deviation N Difference

Standard deviation diference

t df p

RACEMG 917.917 116.241

RPEMG 235.500 29.525 12 682.417 93.104 25.391 11 0.000

RACEMG 917.917 116.241

RAPEMG 582.250 155.664 12 335.667 163.717 7.102 11 0.000

RAPEMG 582.250 155.664

RPEMG 235.500 29.525 12 346.750 143.936 8.345 11 0.000

anticipation test results. It also shows that the EMG pa-rameters were affected by anticipatory stimuli.

Conclusion

The obtained research results show that anticipation has a signifi cant infl uence on the reduction of time of sensorimotor responses both in temporal and spatial anticipation tests. The component which is the most responsible for the reduction of response time is re-action time (RT). However, the results of the temporal anticipation test also revealed a signifi cant decrease in movement time (MT) (p < 0.00). It can be stated that temporal anticipation reduces both the time of infor-mation processing and movement execution. A similar tendency was observed in the spatial anticipation test (p < 0.00); however, the movement time (MT) here was longer (p < 0.001). No statistically signifi cant differ-ences were observed between reaction times (RT) in both types of anticipation tests (p < 0.72), which means that both types of information processing were similar. These results correspond to those obtained by Zelaznik and Hahn [20], Waśkiewicz [21], Abernethy, Wood and Parks [22]. It can thus be concluded that anticipatory signals not only accelerate information processes in the central nervous system, but they also signifi cantly affect the duration of MT phase of a sensorimotor response. It refers both to the temporal and special aspects of the movement [23] since the study results failed to produce any statistically signifi cant differences between the re-sults of the spatial and temporal anticipation tests and of the control test.

A signifi cant research component was the registra-tion of the mean muscle bioelectric tension expressed by the EMG signal. The obtained differences were

highly signifi cant and displayed a linear trend from 235 µV to 917 µV. The lowest muscle tension was not-ed in the control test, followed by the spatial anticipation test and temporal anticipation test. It can be assumed that anticipatory information enforces some sort of mo-bilization of the neuro-muscular system, which can be associated with the facilitation of impulse transmission along nervous pathways [24, 25]. The greater motor unit recruitment is translated into a higher EMG signal value [26]. The subjects’ concentration of attention on timing led characteristically to an increase in muscle tension. In the spatial anticipation test, during the la-tency phase, i.e. during tracking the EMG curve by the subjects, a decrease in muscle tension was observed. It was signifi cantly lower than in the temporal anticipa-tion test, but signifi cantly higher than in the control test. It can be thus stated that, despite visual control, each type of anticipation increases the EMG signal value.

The results of the anticipation tests seem to con-fi rm the initial assumption about the signifi cant reduc-tion of response time due to anticipation [27, 28]. This primarily refers to the reaction time, when the informa-tion from the stimuli is recognized and processed. The analysis, however, failed to defi ne the reasons for the variability of movement time. It seems that the main cause of such variability was the choice of subjects, i.e. elite fencers, who thanks to their experience and intuition were extremely capable of taking advantage of anticipatory information. Despite the small differences the initial hypothesis about the signifi cant superiority of temporal anticipation over spatial anticipation was not confi rmed.

There is no doubt that the subject covered in this study requires further research, especially that reac-tions based on probability assessment which affects


– 23 –

movement execution, are important parts of everyday motor activities and professional sports [10, 11]. The authors did not study this particular aspect, as the ex-periment involved simple lab tests with motor patterns which did not engage motor memory to a great extent.

The obtained results can be effectively used in sport and motor learning to facilitate acquisition of motor habits, development of anticipatory reactions and un-derstanding the signifi cance of timing in learning sen-sorimotor responses.

LITERATURE • PIŚMIENNICTWO

[1] Schmidt RA: Motor Control and Learning. Champaign, Illinois, Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc. 1988.

[2] Petryński W: O nazewnictwie w nauce o ruchach ludzkich. Człowiek i Ruch, 2002; 2 (6): 17–22.

[3] Poulton EC: On prediction in skilled movements. Psycho-logical Bulletin, 1957; 54: 467–478.

[4] Borysiuk Z, Sadowski J: Time and Spatial Aspects of Movement Anticipation. Biology of Sport, 2007; 24 (3): 285–295.

[5] Borysiuk Z, Cynarski WJ: Czas reakcji i czas ruchu, typy odpowiedzi czuciowo-ruchowych, tempo szermiercze (Reaction time and movement time, types of sensorimo-tor responses and fencing tempo). Ido-Ruch dla Kultury/Movement for Culture, 2009; 9: 189–200.

[6] Hotz A: Qualitatives Bewegungslernen. Bern, Verlag Schweizerischer Verband für Sport in der Schule SVSS, 1997.

[7] Rosenbaum D: On the selection of physical actions. Five College Cognitive Science Papers, 1989: 89–104.

[8] Bernstein NA: O lovkosti i yeyo razvitii. Moskva, Fizkultura i Sport, 1991.

[9] Petryński W: Motor control and learning according to Bernstein’s theory. 9th International Scientifi c Conference “Scientifi c Fundaments of Human Movement and Sport Practice”, Rimini, 2005, September 16th–18th.

[10] Feigenberg IM: Speed of Movement Response and Proba-bilistic Prognosis. Kinesiology, 2007; 17 (40): 17–31.

[11] Feigenberg IM: Szybkość odpowiedzi ruchowej i przewi-dywanie prawdopodobne. Antropomotoryka, 2007; 40: 17–31, translated by W. Petryński.

[12] Feigenberg IM: Veroyatnostnoye prognozirovaniye v deyatelnosti cheloveka i povedenii zhivotnykh. Moskva, Nyudiamed, 2008.

[13] Schmidt RA, Wrisberg CA: Motor Learning and Perfor-mance, third edition. Champaign, Human Kinetics Pub-lishers, 2000: 317–318.

[14] Latash M: Control of human movement. Champaign, Human Kinetics, 1993.

[15] Salczenko IN: Dvigatelnyje wzaimodijestviya sportsmie-now. Kijew, Zdorowje, 1980.

[16] Ward P, Williams AM, Bennett SJ: Visual search and bio-logical motion perception in tennis. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 2002; 73: 107–112.

[17] Keller SW, Tyszler DA: Fechtovaniye po sablach. Kijew, Zdorowje, 1970.

[18] Cynarski WJ: Procesy informacyjne w sportach walki – badanie struktury czasowej (Information processes in combat sports – research of time structure). Ido – Ruch dla Kultury/Movement for Culture, 2007; 7: 212–215.

[19] Borysiuk Z: Struktura czasowa procesów informacyjnych w wybranych sportach walki. Warszawa, Akademia Wy-chowania Fizycznego, 2006.

[20] Zelaznik HN, Hahn R: Reaction time methods in the study of motor programming: The precuing of hand, digit and du-ration. Journal of Motor Behavior, 1985; 17: 190–218.

[21] Waśkiewicz Z: A factor analysis of motor adjustment; in Atkinson G, Reilly T (eds): Sport, Leisure and Ergonomics. London, E&FN Spon, 1995; 235–238.

[22] Abernethy B, Wood JM, Parks S: Can the anticipatory skills of experts be learned by novices? Research Quar-terly for Exercise and Sport, 1999; 70: 313–318.

[23] Kelso JAS, Putnam CA, Goodman D: On the space-time structure of human interlimb coordination. Quarterly Jour-nal of Experimental Psychology, 1983; 35A: 347–375.

[24] Blischke K: Automatyzacja w sterowaniu ruchami czło-wieka (Automatisation im Rahmen motorischer Kontrol-le). Antropomotoryka, 2002; 23: 3–13, translated by W. Petryński.

[25] Petryński W: Współczesne teorie uczenia się ruchów i sterowania nimi przez człowieka. Katowice, Górnośląska Wyższa Szkoła Handlowa, 2008.

[26] Keele SW, Ivry R, Pokorny RA: Force control and its relation to timing. Journal of Motor Behavior, 1987; 19: 96–114.

[27] Tyshler D, Tyshler G: Fencing. Moscow, Physical Educa-tion and Science Press, 1995: 151.

[28] Czajkowski Z: About the specifi city of energy and coor-dination abilities. Sport Wyczynowy, 2001; 11–12: 37–43 (in Polish; English abstract).

– 25 –

MOVEMENT TIME OF ELITE VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS DURING THE GAME

CZAS WYKONANIA RUCHU PODCZAS MECZU U SIATKARZY REPREZENTUJĄCYCH NAJWYŻSZY POZIOM

MISTRZOSTWA SPORTOWEGO

Adam Kawczyński*, Dariusz Mroczek**, Jan Chmura***

****PhD, Department of Athletes Motor Skills, Sport Institute, University School of Physical Education, Wrocław, Poland

****MSc, Department of Athletes Motor Skills, Sport Institute, University School of Physical Education, Wrocław, Poland

****Prof. dr. habil., Department of Athletes Motor Skills, Sport Institute, University School of Physical Education, Wrocław, Poland

Key words: movement time, psychomotor performanceSłowa kluczowe: czas wykonania ruchu, sprawność psychomotoryczna

Aim of the work. To investigate movement time of elite volleyball players during the game. Material and methods. Fourteen volleyball players, the members of Polish National Junior Team, partici-

pated in the study. Movement time was measured with the use of Optojump system. Optojump settings were set up to take measurements during the game without any intervention in it. Blood lactate concentration was assessed to monitor exercise load during the game. All measurements were taken during the pre-game test and the sets 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Results. Movement time did not change significantly during the game. Blood lactate concentration increased significantly during the set 1, 2, 3 and 4 compared with pre-game test (p ≤ 0.05).

Conclusions. The characteristics of volleyball game, i.e. physiological load and increase arousal, result in players’ ability to maintain unchanged movement time during the game.

Cel pracy. Oznaczenie czasu wykonania ruchu podczas meczu u zawodników reprezentujących najwyższy poziom mistrzostwa sportowego.

Materiał i metody. W badaniach wzięło udział 14 zawodników Kadry Polski Juniorów. Badania na zawodnikach wykonywano za pomocą optometrycznego systemu pozyskiwania danych Optojump firmy Microgate. Pomiarów dokonywano podczas specyficznego wysiłku meczowego, nie zakłócając przebiegu gry w piłkę siatkową. Do oceny wielkości obciążenia meczowego zawodników wykorzystano wskaźnik określający stężenie mleczanu w osoczu krwi. Pomiary zostały wykonane przed wysiłkiem meczowym oraz podczas gry w secie 1, 2, 3 i 4.

Wyniki. Czas wykonania ruchu nie zmienił się istotnie statystycznie podczas gry. Wartości stężenia mlecza-nu w osoczu krwi wzrosły istotnie statystycznie ( p ≤ 0,05) w setach 1, 2, 3 i 4 w porównaniu do pomiaru przed wysiłkiem meczowym.

Wnioski. Na tej podstawie stwierdzono, że specyfika gry w piłkę siatkową, tj. obciążenie fizjologiczne oraz podwyższone pobudzenie ośrodkowego układu nerwowego u zawodników pozwala im na utrzymanie czasu wykonania ruchu na względnie stałym poziomie przez cały czas trwania wysiłku meczowego.



Adam Kawczyński, Dariusz Mroczek, Jan Chmura

– 26 –

Introduction

The ability to maintain psychomotor performance dur-ing the game is one of the most important ways to suc-ceed in sport competition [1]. In the specialist literature psychomotor performance includes following compo-nents: movement time [2], reaction time [1], choice re-action time [3], other cognitive tasks, i.e. visual search [4], motor skills, i.e. running speed [1]. Optimization and developing of those skills require reliable and valid methods to asses and monitor through training process. Therefore we concentrated on movement time (MT) as-sessment during the game.

Most of studies are made in laboratories (treadmill or bike ergometer) and focused on the effect of exer-cise on components of psychomotor performance. Literature analysis clearly shows that psychomotor studies in majority were made post-exercise [5, 6, 7, 8]. It seems to be important that physiological status of subjects during the post-exercise tests is not identical with their status during the exercise, moreover exercise intensity can infl uence test results [9, 4]. On the other hand, only during competition and training the partici-pants are required to perform activities on moderate and high intensities, speed and accuracy [1] what sub-stantially affects athletes’ motor skills (2).

It is well-known fact that during sport competitions players are under pressure of numerous infl uences. Fatigue, which increases during the game, competes with ability to maintain movement time; other components of psychomotor performance cannot be also disregarded.

In widely accepted defi nition, fatigue is regarded as a psychophysiological state which appears during the effort and contains two main components: 1) metabolic changes in working muscles limiting the performance [11]; 2) central nervous system fatigue which affects mo-tor and perceptual processing; both of them are extreme-ly important in high level ball game participation [12, 13].

All facts showed above lead to conclusion that implemented method, which is performed during the game, is an important step in sport science. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess MT of elite volleyball players during the game.

Materials and methods

Subjects

Fourteen elite volleyball players, the members of Polish National Junior Team, participated in the study. The

average age of participants (mean ± SD) was 18 ± 1 years, the average height was 196 ± 7.39, the average weight was 84.07 ± 7.77. Informed consent was ob-tained from each subject. All the participants gathered together at preparation camp before the 2009 FIVB Boys Youth Volleyball World Championship, Jesolo-Bassano del Grappa, Italy. The study was approved by the local ethics committee.

Blood lactate concentration

Blood sample was taken from the ear lobe for deter-mination of blood lactate concentration using portable lactate test analyzer (Lactate Scout, SensLab GmbH, Leipzig, Germany). Blood lactate concentration was measured during the pre-game test and during the sets 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Measurement of movement time

The research was done with the help of Optojump sys-tem (Microgate, Bolzano, Italy), which measured foot contact time with the ground in a measurement area with the precision up to 0.001 s. Among the advantages of this device the most important is possibility to adjust the software to the needs of participants and the place-ment of working measurement areas in different loca-tions depending on the specifi c trial. This useful tool enables to develop a test for measurement of move-ment time.

Before pre-match warm up all players were instruct-ed in details about the experiment procedure and loca-tion of measurement devices (Fig. 1).

During the pre-game test, game effort and each of the four sets played, all participants had to follow identi-cal test procedure, according to which the player took his place in the starting square located on the base line of the court (Fig. 1). The trial began in a square of side 70 cm, within which the start position was free. Subject stood with his foot staggered, where either the left or right leg was forward. The setting allowed for place-ment of backward leg so that the heel of the feet was always in the measurement area of the fi rst couple of the Optojump measurement device (10 cm measuring from the tuber calcanei). The tested player stood fac-ing the net, on which a light source was located at the height of 243 cm, directly in front of him. Reacting to the signal (stimulus), he had to run as quickly as possible towards the light. In order to prevent anticipation of the stimulus, the signal was given irregularly. The intensity

Movement time of elite volleyball players during the game

– 27 –

and duration of stimulus were high enough to be no-ticed without a problem.

Due to strict time limits and the low number of tri-als, every player made one trial before the experiment proper. In this way, players could familiarize themselves with light stimulus (signal) and experiment procedure so they could participate in the experiment without any diffi culty. After that the opinions were exchanged and once more the whole procedure was presented. After the discussion of results, the resting value of movement time for all players participating in the experiment was assessed.

With consideration to the extremely precise and dynamic nature of the whole trial, appropriate oral mo-tivation was also important for correct performance. Positive motivation before and during the test multiplied the player’s effective stimulation to the action. The MT measurements were taken during the pre-game test and the sets 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Statistics

Movement time and blood lactate concentration were analyzed with the help of the repeated-measures ana-lysis of variance (RMANOVA) between the measure-ments (pre-game test and sets 1, 2, 3, 4). The signifi -cant results were further analyzed using simple contrast (compared with pre-game test and set 1). The level p ≤ 0.05 was considered to be signifi cant. The data was presented as means with standard errors (SEM).

Results

Movement time

The repeated-measures ANOVA revealed that volley-ball game had no signifi cant effect on MT (Fig. 2.; Tab. 1). MT tended to increase during the set 1. MT remained

Figure 1. Movement time measurements

7700

OPTOJUMP OPTOJUMP

Foot take off

Foot setting

Table 1. Movement time and blood lactate concentration during pre-game test and during sets 1, 2, 3 and 4. Asterisks denote significant difference between values obtained in consecutive sets (1–4) as compared with pre-game test

Variable Pre-game test Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4

Movement time [ms] 330 ± 30 370 ± 50 340 ± 33 350 ± 40 290 ± 20

Blood lactate [mmol/l] 1.1 ± 0.04 1.7 ± 0.11* 1.5 ± 0.15* 1.4 ± 0.06* 1.3 ± 0.07*


– 28 –

almost unchanged during the set 2, 3 and tended to de-crease during the set 4.

Blood lactate concentration

Blood lactate concentration (LA) increased signifi cantly during the set 1, 2, 3 and 4 compared with pre-game test (p < 0.05). LA increased by 54.5 %; 36.4%; 27.3% and 18.2% during the set 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively (Fig. 3.; Tab. 1).

Discussion

In our study we aimed at assessing MT of elite volleyball players during the game. In order to assess the value of MT during the game we had to implement new method, which allowed to collect data without game disturbance.

McMorris et al. [2] implemented testing of MT during the whole body movement, which was partly similar to players’ activity during the volleyball game. Subjects had to perform run through obstacles and choose one of possible ways, as a reaction on different light signals. This psycho-motor test was performed in three conditions: 1) after sit-ting in a chair to reach resting heart rate; 2) after cycling at 70% maximal power output (Wmax); 3) after cycling at 100% Wmax. The authors proved that movement time was not af-fected by the moderate intensity exercise [2]. In our study, where highest individual LA level was about 3,2 mmol/l, movement time also did not change signifi cantly.

It should be explained why the values of blood lac-tate concentration were rather low during the volleyball

game. The answer seems to be simple: those results were connected with the game characteristics. Players changed their position during the game and left the fi eld to change their teammates. It resulted in recovery and rather low level of physiological parameters in spite of high-level competition. In general, volleyball game is characterized by the low lactate concentrations level (2.54 +/– 1.21 mmol/l) during and after the matches. An increase of free fatty acids indicates that the energy during the short activity periods is supplied mainly by the breakdown of creatine phosphate, while aerobic pathways restore the energy sources during the resting periods [14].

When analyzing MT during the volleyball match, we have to remember about the mental state of play-ers. The competition as such increases arousal [15, 16]. Relationship between the level of arousal and psychomotor skill is well-documented in the literature and described as an inverted U. It means that com-ponents of psychomotor performance (i.e. movement time) decrease or remain unchanged with an increase of central nervous system arousal. After passing this optimal level of arousal, MT increases [17, 18]. All above-mentioned leads to assumption that during our game unchanged MT could be due to the increased arousal of central nervous system as an effect of competition. In our experiment exercise intensity was moderate during the game, and that indicated blood lactate concentration. It must be underlined that mo-derate intensity of exercise is believed to produce op-timal level of CNS arousal [3, 12].

0 1 2 3 4260

280

300

320

340

360

380

400

420

440

Mov

emen

t tim

e [m

s]

Setpre-game test

Figure 2. Time course changes of movement time (mean ± SEM) for each set of game

Movement time of elite volleyball players during the game

– 29 –

0 1 2 3 4

0,5

1,0

1,5

2,0

**

**

Blo

od la

ctat

e co

ncen

tratio

n [m

mol

/l]

Setpre-game test

Figure 3. Time course changes of blood lactate concentration (mean ± SEM) for each set of game

Conclusion

Elite volleyball players showed the ability to maintain unchanged MT during the game. It could be an effect of

physiological load, game characteristic and increased arousal of players during the game.


[1] Chmura J, Nazar K: Parallel changes in the onset of blood lactate accumulation (OBLA) and threshold of psychomo-tor performance deterioration during incremental exercise after training in athletes. Int J Psychophysiol, 2010; 75: 287–290.

[2] McMorris T, Delves S, Sproule J, Lauder M, Hale B: Effect of incremental exercise on initiation and movement times in a choice response, whole body psychomotor task. Br J Sports Med, 2005; 39: 537–541.

[3] Chmura J, Nazar K, Kaciuba-Uscilko H: Choice reaction time during graded exercise in relation to blood lactate and plasma catecholamine thresholds. Int J Sports Med, 1994; 15: 172–176.

[4] Tomporowski PD: Effects of acute bouts of exercise on cognition. Acta Psychol (Amst), 2003; 112: 297–324.

[5] Coles K, Tomporowski PD: Effects of acute exercise on executive processing, short-term and long-term memory. J Sports Sci, 2008; 26: 333–344.

[6] Hillman CH, Snook EM, Jerome GJ: Acute cardiovascular exercise and executive control function. Int J Psycho-physiol, 2003; 48: 307–314.

[7] Kamijo K, Nishihira Y, Higashiura T, Kuroiwa K: The interactive effect of exercise intensity and task diffi culty on human cogni-tive processing. Int J Psychophysiol, 2007; 65: 114–121.

[8] Themanson JR, Hillman CH: Cardiorespiratory fi tness and acute aerobic exercise effects on neuroelectric and behavioral measures of action monitoring. Neuroscience, 2006; 141: 757–767.

[9] Kjaer M: Epinephrine and some other hormonal responses to exercise in man: with special reference to physical training. Int J Sports Med, 1989; 10: 2–15.

[10] Aune TK, Ingvaldsen RP, Ettema GJ: Effect of physical fatigue on motor control at different skill levels. Percept Mot Skills, 2008; 106: 371–386.

[11] Fitts RH: Cellular mechanisms of muscle fatigue. Physiol Rev, 1994; 74: 49–94.

[12] McMorris T, Graydon J: The effect of exercise on cognitive performance in soccer-specifi c tests. J Sports Sci, 1997; 15: 459–468.

[13] Royal KA, Farrow D, Mujika I, Halson SL, Pyne D, Aber-nethy B: The effects of fatigue on decision making and shooting skill performance in water polo players. J Sports Sci, 2006; 24: 807–815.

[14] Kunstlinger U, Ludwig HG, Stegemann J: Metabolic changes during volleyball matches. Int J Sports Med, 1987; 8: 315–322.

[15] Rhea MR, Landers DM, Alvar BA, Arent SM: The ef-fects of competition and the presence of an audience on


– 30 –

weight lifting performance. J Strength Cond Res, 2003; 17: 303–306.

[16] Sibley BA, Etnier JL: Time course of attention and decision making during a volleyball set. Res Q Exerc Sport, 2004; 75: 102–106.

[17] Arent SM, Landers DM: Arousal, anxiety, and perform-ance: a reexamination of the Inverted-U hypothesis. Res Q Exerc Sport, 2003; 74: 436–444.

[18] Duffy E: The psychological signifi cance of the concept of arousal or activation. Psychol Rev, 1957; 64: 265–275.

– 31 –

THE RELATION BETWEEN THE TRAINING LOAD AND THE RESULTS IN THE 10 AND 20 KM RACE

WALKS OF POLISH RACE WALKERS

ZWIĄZKI MIĘDZY OBCIĄŻENIEM TRENINGOWYM A WYNKAMI W CHODZIE SPORTOWYM NA 10 I 20 KM

POLSKICH CHODZIARZY

Edward Mleczko*, Jerzy Januszewski**

** Prof. dr. habil., Theory and Methodology of Track and Field Athletics Department, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland

** Prof. dr. habil. emer., os. Dywizjonu 303, bl. 26/51, Cracow, Poland

Key words: race walking, junior category, sport results, training load, correlation Słowa kluczowe: chód sportowy, kategoria juniora, wyniki sportowe, obciążenia

treningowe, korelacja

Aim of the work. To study chosen aspects of Polish race walkers’ training concerning the elite of youngest contestants at various stages of their athletic mastery.

Material and methods. The data on the result progression of two Polish walkers in the junior category, G.S. and B.K., was analyzed based on the several issues of “The Bulletin of Polish Athletics Association” (PZLA), considering the fact that the subjects have belonged to the world elite for several years.

The number of starts, the volume of training: inside (in hours) and outside (in kilometres) were all summed up as well as divided into groups in accordance with the way of covering the distance (race walking vs. run) and intensity of exercises. To describe the inner loading factor (inner loading zone: aerobic, aerobic-anaerobic and anaerobic) J. Cempla and E. Mleczko [1] method was used. The strength of the relationship between the top results in the following years of training over a distance of 10 and 20 km and complied training load in the particular years was determined according to the value of the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient.

Results. Extensive growth of training load is not the only way to reach the mastery level for the junior sport walker. Too high in volume run training (over 10% of the annual volume of outside training) applied to the race walker in the junior category can negatively influence his sport level. As a factor that stimulates enough race walkers may be consider the annual training volume, which not exceeds 3000 km, together with all aerobic agents in superiority (75%) and with the distribution of anaerobic and anaerobic-aerobic agents in proportions of 11:14%. The tendency to stabilize the development of sport results pace in the junior category is probably linked together with too high volume of training load. Practising 50 km race walk should not cause any decrease in the contestant’s efficiency on shorter distances.

Conclusions. 1. It is possible to hold long-term relative stability of sport development in race walking. 2. Training volume and its intensity on the aerobic-anaerobic level can influence the result progression in 10 and 20 km race walk at the beginning of practising sport walking. 3. Negative influence is marked by the number of starts in the year and the volume of running training load. 4. The cumulative effect of training in the following years can influence the progress of the results in sport walking, especially when covering 50 km race walk.

Cel badań. Podjęto badania wybranych zagadnień szkoleniowych najmłodszego pokolenia polskich chodziarzy na różnych etapach rozwoju ich mistrzostwa sportowego.



Edward Mleczko, Jerzy Januszewski

– 32 –

Materiał i metody. Poddano analizie materiał dokumentacyjny dotyczący progresji wyników dwóch polskich chodziarzy w kategorii juniora: G.S. i B.K., który był zamieszczony w „Biuletynach Polskiego Związku Lekkiej Atletyki” (PZLA). Obaj zawodnicy od wielu lat należą do światowej elity chodziarzy. Zsumowano: liczbę startów, objętość treningu na hali (godz.) i w terenie (km) oraz w grupach wydzielonych ze względu na sposób pokonywania dystansu (chód sportowy – bieg) i zakres intensywności ćwiczeń. Do określenia wskaźnika obciążenia wewnętrznego (strefa obciążenia wewnętrznego: tlenowa, tlenowo-beztlenowa i beztlenowo-tlenowa) wykorzystano metodę zapropo-nowaną przez Cemplę i Mleczkę [1]. Siłę związku między najlepszym wynikiem w kolejnych latach szkolenia na dystansie 10 i 20 km a realizowanym obciążeniem treningowym w danym roku ustalono na podstawie wartości współczynnika korelacji rang Spearmana.

Wyniki badań. Ekstensywny wzrost obciążenia treningowego chodziarza nie jest jedyną drogą do osiągnięcia klasy mistrzowskiej w chodzie sportowym przez juniora. Zbyt duża objętość treningu biegowego realizowana przez chodziarza w kategorii juniora (powyżej 10% rocznej objętości treningu w terenie) może wpływać negatywnie na jego poziom sportowy. Za wystarczający bodziec treningowy dla chodziarza można uważać objętość treningu nieprzekraczającą 3000 km w roku, w której przewagę będą mieć środki tlenowe (75%) z rozkładem środków tlenowo-beztlenowych i beztlenowo-tlenowych w proporcjach 11:14%. Wystąpienie już w kategorii młodzieżowca tendencji do stabilizacji tempa rozwoju wyników sportowych może być następstwem eksponowania zbyt dużych obciążeń treningowych w kategorii juniora. Uprawianie chodu na 50 km nie powinno spowodować obniżenia sprawności w chodzie na krótszych dystansach.

Wnioski. 1. Istnieje możliwość utrzymania przez długi okres względnej stabilności rozwoju sportowego w chodzie sportowym. 2. Na progresję wyników na 10 i 20 km w początkowym okresie uprawiania chodu spor-towego może mieć wpływ objętość treningu oraz jego intensywność na poziomie obciążenia tlenowo-beztleno-wego. 3. Ujemny wpływ wykazuje liczba startów w roku i objętość treningu biegowego. 4. Na postęp wyników w chodzie sportowym, zwłaszcza na 50 km, może mieć wpływ kumulacyjny efekt wytrenowania w kolejnych latach treningu.

Introduction

Recent success of Polish race walkers is linked with the name of Robert Korzeniowski, whose achieve-ments have been until today the benchmarks to evaluate the sport level of race walkers from Poland and abroad. Consequently, the interest of sport audi-ence still focuses on sources of such unusual sport achievement. The most important, without doubts, is the real talent of Korzeniowski that has come from the phenomenal genotype transmitted from his par-ents. However, it is well-known that Korzeniowski’s winning the Olympic championship in 20 km and 50 km race walk was the consequence of well-orga-nized training system, which was concentrated on improving problematic points [1]. Unfortunately, only the foundations of this training process have been estimated and made available to the audience [2, 3]. These foundations have tooled up the contes-tants to measure their own potentiality in order to evaluate and to develop the mastery. Some of them on certain ontogenesis stages have better results than young Korzeniowski in the junior category [4]. As detailed analysis of this training concept proves, there are some common features, in spite of differ-ences in the training material and time structure [3, 4, 5].

The best example is G.S., who in the junior cat-egory held the title of Polish race walking champion for distances of 10 km and 20 km (1:25.47), repeating this success several times. His greatest international achievements for the distances of 10 km and 20 km are: seventh place at the fi nals in the International Junior Championship in Sydney in 1996 (20 km), and as a se-nior – tenth place at the 2002 European Championship in Munich as well as seventh and eighth place at the Olympic Games (50 km). G.S. won second place in the 2010 European Championship in Barcelona.

Methods

In spite of the fact that success of Polish race walkers at the turn of the 21st century is in the majority the effect of implementing Polish training school based on the race walking achievements, is almost impossible to fi nd any brief description of its specifi cation in the literature – in contrast to the previous achievements. In the 1980s two milestone publications were released and edited by T. Chmielewski [2] and K. Kisiel [3, 5] focusing on the training issue of Polish walkers of that time. A foretaste of what was to come was the publication of some train-ing aspects of the Olympic Games [4]. Over the next ten years there have been no attempts to develop men-tioned problematic question.

The relation between the training load and the results in the 10 and 20 km race walks of Polish race walkers

– 33 –

Apparently, these diffi culties were caused by the efforts to keep in secret training ways and hints. Accepting the requirements of personal property pro-tection and with the acceptance of the trainers and contestants, researchers from the University School of Physical Education in Cracow undertook the research on particular training subjects of the sport mastery development. On the main assumption, the research should lead to achieve cognitive aims. Until now, the study has led to conclusion that series of results cannot have applicable value. In this publication the attention is paid to some of them.

Aim of the research

1. To describe the specifi c features of the top Polish race walkers.

2. To test the dependence between the progressions of sport results of two Polish Olympic contestants in race walking and training load complied in the junior category.

3. To determine what connection intensity is between the progression of achieved results for distances of 10 km and 20 km race walking in the junior, pre--senior and the senior’s fi rst season and accom-plishing during that time the training load.

Research question

1. What is the volume of training load enough to win the Polish championship in the race walking for dis-tances of 10 and 20 km in the category of junior, pre-senior and the senior’s fi rst season?

2. Is there any directly proportional dependence between the result pace for the 10 and 20 km race walk ended with the Polish records in the junior category in both distances and the train-ing structure, quantity and intensity of training load?

3. Is it possible to fi nd typical features of the develop-ment dynamics of sport results: progression, rela-tive stabilization and regress for all typical sport walking distances (10, 20 and 50 km) during the thirteen-year-long period of practicing race walk-ing by the Polish champion in the 10 and 20 km race walks?

4. Which of the elements of training load in race walk-ing of Polish champion in the junior category did show the strongest correlation with the develop-ment dynamics of sport results?

Resources

Material

The material regarding the result progression of G.S. and B.K., two Polish race walkers in the junior category, was analyzed. The documentation came from the is-sues of “Polish Athletics Association Bulletin”, fi les en-closed with the Polish Athletics Association’s reports, the information gained from G.S. and B.K. and the data found in “Training Reports” prepared by the race walk-ers’ coaches in order to meet the registration require-ments of Polish Athletics Association.

According to these, B.K. is a current Polish cham-pion and a record holder in the category of race walk-ing for the distances of 10 and 20 km in the mentioned category (the record belonged formerly to G.S.). Both of the mentioned performers won Polish championship and took part in the Summer Olympics. Until now they have belonged to the world elite of race walkers. In 2010, G.S. won second place in the Europe Championship in Barcelona.

Methods

1. The subject of analysis there was, among others, the data gathered in the training reports during the period of starts in the junior category (4 years) con-cerning: • the number of starts, • inside training volume (in hours), • outside training (in kilometres) with the division

to the way of covering the distance (race walk-ing vs. run) and the exercises intensity were all summed up.

To describe the inner loading factor (inner load-ing zone: oxygen, oxygen – non-oxygen and non-oxygen) J. Cempla and E. Mleczko [1] method was used.

2. The strength between the top results in the following years of training for the distance of 10 km and com-plied training load in the particular years was de-termined according to the value of the Spearman’s rank correlation coeffi cient.

3. In the thirteen-year-long sport career of G.S. the progression of results and frequency of the race walking starts of contestant was researched.

4. During the eight-year-long training period of G.S. in race walking in the junior category (the junior, pre-


– 34 –

senior and senior’s fi rst year season) the analyses centred upon: • the number of starts, • outside training capacity (km),• the way of covering the distance’s partition (race

walking vs. run),• the range of accomplished exercises intensity

(inner loading zone: aerobic, aerobic-anaerobic, and anaerobic-aerobic),

• inside training exercises endurance (hourly) improving the strength and coordination base (so-called “effi ciency”) – all summed up.

To describe the inner loading factor (inner loading zone: aerobic, aerobic-anaerobic and aerobic) J. Cempla and E. Mleczko [1] method was used.

5. The strength of connection between the best result in the following training years for the distance of 10 and 20 km and accomplished training load in the particular year were calculated with the help of the Spearman’s correlation rank coeffi cient.

RESULTS

Progression of sport results of Polish champions in race walking in the junior category

Analyzing the data from Table 1, especially concerning distances of 5 and 10 km, we can see that younger con-testant (B.K.) ended up his fi rst start season with worse sport results than G.S.

It should be mentioned that B.K. began participating in the 20 km race walks relatively late – in last season of his starts in the junior category. More decreasing re-sult progression of older contestant (G.S.) brought B.K. better record result. Besides that, at this stage of sport career these two elite performers did not take part in the 50 km race walks (later only G.S. participated in it).

Start frequency of researched performers in the junior category

Practically no difference in the number of starts in particular distances between G.S. and B.K. has been found (see Table 2). Total number of starts was infl u-enced by the participation of G.S. in the 3 km race walks. It should be also mentioned that along with the age of race walkers we observed a decrease for G.S. and increase for B.K. in the number of starts.

Total volume and structure of training load of Polish juniors in subsequent years of training

We can presume different approach towards training load (see: Table 4) of G.S. and B.K. in the junior cat-egory. In the fi rst season, the training of G.S. was quan-titatively higher than it was observed in every season of B.K. In the fi rst year of starts the differences between these two contestants reached the level of 1555.1 km and the tendency to enlarge training volume appeared only in the training of G.S.

Analyzing the pace of the described training load’s element at the category of older junior, in the training of B.K. we observed a slight decrease and stabilization at the annual volume of 3000 km. In the last year of ob-servation, the difference reached the level of 2000 km. For ease, the similar volume of training load of B.K. in the fi rst year of the junior category (Table 3) was men-tioned. The same refers to the volume of inside training. G.S. spent more time on completing it (52.7–71.9 hours) than B.K. (18.15–53.10 hours).

When comparing the start effi ciency of G.S. and B.K. at this stage of sport career, we should consider that results of G.S. and B.K. are incommensurable. In spite of the great training effort of G.S. (annual volume of outside training 3654.7–5055.6 km and 52.7–79.1

Table 1. The result progression of the younger and older junior of Polish Olympic contestants

SeasonI. (younger junior) II. (younger junior) III. (older junior) IV. (older junior)

G.S. B.K. G.S. B.K. G.S. B.K. G.S. B.K.

5 km 22.56 24.42 22.07 21.53 21.08 20.36 20.50 19.25,18

10 km 45.41 47.04 42.46 43.24 41.46 41.50 41.26 40.10,00

20 km – – 1:35.10 – 1:30.21 – 1:25.47 1:24.53

50 km – – – – – – – –


– 35 –

hours of inside training) enabling him to beat Polish records, his results happened to be worse than those which belonged to performing less work B.K. (2101–3112 km). Worth mentioning are some quality differ-ences in complying training load between these two contestants.

Outside training of G.S. enclosed more running as a training agent, especially during his fi rst year in the junior category (34–38%). In due course, the participa-tion of this agent decreased and stabilized at the level of 13% in the last year of observation. The training of B.K. enclosed running agent to the lesser extent (min. 0.7–6.6%) in all periods of observation.

Sport training volume complied in the sport walking engaging three inner loading zones

When comparing the results of G.S. and B.K. (Table 4), we assume that the aerobic mechanism of energy changes was in the majority engaged in the training of G.S. Additionally, when taking into consideration “mixed agents” proportion it appears that in older ju-nior category the stronger anaerobic-aerobic agents were involved in the training process of G.S. It seems to be interesting that in the third analyzed season B.K. reached the similar sport level as G.S. Another interest-ing fact is that in spite of all mentioned differences in

Table 2. Start frequency of G.S. and B.K. in particular start seasons

Testedseason

G. S. B. K.

93/94 94/95 95/96 96/97 Total 97/98 98/99 99/00 00/01 Total

3 km 1 2 2 1 6 – – – –

5 km 5 4 2 2 13 2 4 3 4 13

10 km 6 8 12 8 34 7 10 7 8 32

20 km – 1 2 1 4 – – – 4 4

Total 12 15 18 12 57 9 14 10 16 49

Table 3. The volume of the inside training “efficiency” in the following seasons of training and complied by G.S. and B.K. outside training including two groups of training items

SeasonRun % Race walking % Outside [km] „Efficiency” [h]

G.S B.K G.S B.K G.S B.K G.S B.K

I 38 3.6 62 96.4 3654.7 2101 52.7 18.15

II 34 6.6 66 93.4 4218.4 2379 60.8 21.40

III 21 1.2 79 98.8 4511.4 3112 67.3 53.10

IV 13 0.7 87 99.3 5055.6 2976 71.9 37.0

Table 4. The outside training volume (run, sport walking) with division of its intensity to three inner loading zones

Loading zone Season

Aerobic % Aerobic--anaerobic % Anaerobic-areobic % Total [km]

G.S. B.K G.S B.K G.S B.K G.S B.K

I 75.9 76.3 10.6 7.7 13.6 16.0 2189.4 2100.9

II 81.5 77.2 7.9 8.5 10.6 13.3 4218.4 2379.0

III 73.8 72.5 9.6 14.5 16.6 13.0 4511.4 3111.5

IV 67.8 74.4 14.7 11.7 17.6 13.9 5055.6 2975.5


– 36 –

volume both contestants at the age of 18 reached the same level of sport mastery. The difference increased to 1400 km in favour of G.S.

The dependence between the sport result in 10 km distance and the training load complied by the contestants of the race walking

In Table 5 the Spearman’s rank correlation coeffi cient between the results in the 10 km race walk and the

volume of loading complied by both contestants were presented. The analysis of the measurements of G.S. revealed the same strongest positive strength of the de-pendence between the result in 10 km and the outside training volume, and effi ciency (rsp = 1). The negative correlation with the training volume appeared. In the measurement of B.K. with the exception of the train-ing volume, all other dependences were positive and of high value. No negative correlation coeffi cient ap-peared.

Table 5. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient between the results in 10 km race walk and the volume of load complied by G.S. and B.K. in the junior category

10 km results G.S. B.K.

Outside training volume 1 0.47

Efficiency volume 1 0.87

Oxygen loading 0.87 0.87

Oxygen-non-oxygen loading 1 0.87

Non-oxygen loading 0.87 0.87

The number of starts 0.30 0.87

Table 6. The result progression in race walking and the frequency of starts from particular disciplines including age and training practice of G.S.

The yearof training Age 5 km/number

of starts10 km/number



of starts

1 15 25.26/4 – – –

2 16 22.56/5 45.41/6 – –

3 17 22.07/4 42.46/8 1:35.10/1 –

4 18 21.08/2 41.46/12 1:30.21/2 –

5 19 20.50/2 41.26/8 1:25.47/1 –

6 20 19.40/3 42.19/3 1:29.39/4 –

7 21 20.16/1 41.44/4 1:27.54/4 –

8 22 19.39/5 41.55/3 1:25.02/4 –

9 23 19.42 40.57 1:24.37 –

10 24 19.35 40.07 1:22.37 3:51.26

11 25 19.40 40.37 1:23.07 3:55.12

12 26 19.34 – 1:22.27 3:48.09

13 27 19.11 39.01 1:21.03 –


– 37 –

Race walking starts of G.S. – the progression of results and frequency

Discussing the data from Table 6, especially when searching for the period of relative stabilization of result development, we can assume that it appears at every distance. This applies to the case of 50 km racing walk but it does not prove the obstruction in the progressive development of the performer’s life records. G.S. com-peted for the fi rst time at this distance having had a ten-year practice in race walking. In the following year (2005) G.S. did not make any successful appearance. Omitting the above, we should state that a typical situation of fast-er entering a period of relative result stabilization in the development progress at shorter distances took place.

Taking into consideration training practice we ac-cepted that above mentioned process had appeared at particular distances in following years of training: 5 km – 6th year (fi rst season in the pre-senior cat-egory), 10 km – 8th year (senior category), 20 km – 9th year (senior category). First quite successful starts at 50 km distance G.S. had as a senior (after nine years of professional practicing race walking) and it was diffi cult to assume, whether in his case the dynamics of progres-sive development, refl ected in sport results, was com-pleted. According to the above, in the case of analysed performer, basing on his 13-year-long sport practice, we would say that none of the development pace results had suggested that in the following years G.S. would have entered the progress period in the mastery level.

His life records set in 2005 prove our observation. It can be presumed that only disqualifi cation would preclude him from improving the results at 50 km race

walk. The changes in sport level do not vary as much as in the junior category and defi nitely show the stabi-lization of the sport condition up to the mastery level in the following years.

Without doubts, the less successful was the period between the sixth and the seventh year of his sport prac-tice (pre-senior years). It is worth mentioning that G.S. achieved his best results at the 50 km race walk in the senior category. In these years G.S. continued his de-gree studies and in the year 2005 he got a degree and reached the top level of his sport possibilities. The fre-quency of starts shows the slight difference. In the cat-egory of junior, especially at the age of 18, the increase in number of his starts was noticed (18 starts in one year and among them 12 at 10 km distance!). In the follow-ing years, the number stabilized at the same level (9–12 starts a year) predominantly at the distance of 20 km.

In Table 7 the volume of training measurements (outside training and inside training – “effi ciency”) and considering the way of covering distance (sport walking vs. run) in the fi rst 8 years of the sport training: junior category (5 years), pre-senior category (2 years), se-nior category (1 year) was inserted. Analyzed informa-tion proves evident increase in implementing training load in the junior category. The volume of completed distance in outside training was 219.4 km and in the last preparing year of the junior category it reached to 5055.6 km.

To this measurements we should add the volume of inside training. In the preceded year the volume of inside training increased to 96.7 hours and in the last year – to 71.9 hours. That result progression of G.S. at all typical distances 5, 10 and particularly 20

Table 7. The annual measurement of outside training (altogether and particularly of run and sport walking) and the training accom-plished inside (efficiency)

The agecategory Run (km) Run

% Walk (km) Walk% Altogether (km) “Efficiency” (hour)

Junior 561 26 1628.4 74 2189.4 36.7

Junior 1384 38 2270.7 62 3654.7 52.7

Junior 1422 34 2796.4 66 4218.4 60.8

Junior 968.5 21 3452.9 79 4511.4 67.3

Junior 637 13 4418.6 87 5055.5 71.9

Pre-senior 465.5 11 3782 89 4247.5 77.8

Pre-senior 593 12 4225.7 88 4818.7 67.6

Senior 616.4 14 3652.2 86 4268.6 71.6


– 38 –

km was probably the effect of extensive load growth. This tendency was curbed in the pre-senior category (from 20–21 years of age) and in the senior category (age of 22). The increase in the time of inside training was noticed. As the earlier results show, in that point of time the obstruction of the fast pace of sport result development and the tendency to relative stabiliza-tion appeared. What should be marked is the fact that achievement of the mastery level of senior category at the 20 km distance was accompanied with the quanti-tative growth of training load as well as the signifi cant reduction of training provided by running (stressed in the category of early junior). Its participation at this time reached the level of 34–38% of the outside train-ing and in the last year over limited not much of 10%. These relations between the particular exercises prac-

ticed both in running and sport walking stayed at the same level in the following training years.

The intensity of outside training of the race walker

As we can see from Table 8, during all these years of training the exercises engaging aerobic mechanism of metabolic changes were in the majority. On average it was kept at the steady level of 76.8% by the obvious dis-persion of results (67.8–84.2%). The proportions of the aerobic-anaerobic and anaerobic-aerobic average ap-proaches were nearly the same. Only in the older junior category more intensive averages of anaerobic agents (16.6–17.6%) dominated over those aerobic-anaerobic (9.6–14.7%). Due to information analysis the contestant achieved the mastery level in the phase when training

Table 8. The structure of the training load of G.S. at the following stages of his sport training

LoadSEASON

Aerobickm [ % ]

Anaerobickm [ % ]

Anaerobic-aerobickm [ % ]

Totalkm 100%

1993 [Jr] 1661.5 [75.9] 231.0 [10.5] 296.9 [13.6] 2189.4

1994 [Jr] 3077.0 [84.2] 155.2 [ 4.2 ] 422.5 [11.6] 3654.7

1995 [Jr] 3438.0 [81.5] 333.0 [ 7.9 ] 447.4 [10.6] 4218.4

1996 [Jr] 3329.5 [73.8] 434.0 [ 9.6 ] 747.9 [16.6] 4511.4

1997 [Jr] 3426.0 [67.8] 742.0 [14.6] 887.6 [17.6] 5055.6

1998 [P-sen] 3357.5 [79.0] 476.5 [11.3] 413.5 [ 9.7] 4247.5

1999 [P-sen] 3567.0 [74.0] 673.0 [14.0] 578.7 [12.0] 4818.7

2000 [Sen] 3335.4 [78.1] 501.1 [11.7] 432.1 [10.2] 4268.6

Abbreviations: Jr – junior; P-sen – pre-senior; Sen – senior

Table 9. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient in relations: training load structure –10 km and 20 km result in the initial period of sport training of G.S.

Load and ... 10 km 20 km

Outside training volume 1 0.46

Race walking volume 0.86 0.66

Run volume –0.40 –0.50

Efficiency volume 0.54 0.60

Aerobic load 0.48 -0.11

Aerobic-anaerobic load 0.86 0.66

Anaerobic load 0.79 0.03

The number of starts –0.34 –0.24


– 39 –

load was quantitatively and qualitatively the strongest. Quite probable obstruction of the result in the pre-senior category might be caused by the overloading of training and a try to copy earlier training patterns.

The relation between the training load and the result in the race walking for distances of 10 and 20 km

In Table 9 it was shown the result of the relation strength between the result in 10 and 20 km and the training load structure practiced by G.S. during particular period of his sport ontogenesis. Relatively higher correlation factor between the training load and the result in 10 km than 20 km can be noticed. In these both cases ap-parently the relation strength between the sport result and outside training volume in race walking together with the aerobic-anaerobic training load appeared. The negative correlation coeffi cients appeared in the rela-tions where the number of starts and the training load took place while running.

Summary and discussion

We can assume that at this point of his 13-year-lasting sport career, G.S. currently has reached the stage of relative stabilization of his result development. It is quite clear for a distance of 50 km, but this does not prove the obstruction of progressive development of the life records. Omitting the above and focusing on the result development progress, we should conclude that we have to do with a typical situation when the relative re-sult stabilization appears faster at shorter distances.

What should be marked is the fact that achieving the mastery level in the senior category for a distance of 20 km was accompanied not only with the quantita-tive growth of training load but also with the signifi cant reduction of the volume of training load oriented on run-ning (vital in training load at the stage of early junior). The participation of this factor at this period reached the level of 34–38% of outside training and in the last year over limited not much of 10%. These relations be-tween the particular exercises practiced in both – run and in race walking stayed at the same level in the fol-lowing training years.

All the data analysis led us to conclusion that the point in time when the contestant reached the mastery level was simultaneous with the period when training load was quantitatively and qualitatively the strongest. The obstruction of the results in the pre-senior category probably was caused by the overloading of training and

a try to copy the training patterns from earlier stages of career.

The relatively higher correlation coeffi cient between the training load and the result in 10 km than in 20 km can be also underlined. In these both cases apparently the relation strength between the sport result and out-side training volume in the race walking together with the aerobic-anaerobic training load appeared. The ne-gative correlation coeffi cients appeared in the relations where the number of the starts and the training quantity took place while running.

Basing on the presented and analyzed material the question comes to mind: If the contestant B.K. has reached defi nitely the higher sport level, why so in-tensive training should be practiced? Such tiring and extensive training (above 5000 km a year) can be posi-tively estimated when it leads to the later possibility of participation in the 50 km distance race walk. It seems that for the present effects and needs of sport develop-ment for junior category only the load of 3000 km would be enough. For sure, the need of elimination of the run agent as an training item should be considered. Past experience and the analysis of B.K. correlation coeffi -cient show the negative infl uence on the result of G.S.

Because of traditions and habits it seems that there is no need to try any run agents more than those, which were used by B.K. (10% of the whole year training vol-ume). The great number of starts should also become the subject of some discussions. For sure, the number was quite high in the G.S. years of training.

Conclusions

1. The appearance of the tendency to stabilization the sport results development’s pace can be a succes-sion of too signifi cant training load in the junior cat-egory.

2. There is a possibility of holding relative stabiliza-tion of the sport development in the race walking for a long time.

3. The training quantity and its intensity on the aerobic--anaerobic level can infl uence the result progres-sion in 10 and 20 km at the beginning time of prac-ticing the sport walking. The negative infl uence is marked by the number of the starts and the volume of running training.

4. The cumulative effect of training in the following years can infl uence on the progress of the results in the sport walking, especially in the 50 km distance. Practicing sport walking at 50 km should not cause


– 40 –

any decrease of the effi ciency in the sport walking over shorter distance.

5. The extensive growth of t training load of the race walker is not the only way to reach the mastery level in race walking for junior.

6. Training volume, which does not exceed 3000 km a year, where the superiority would be all of the

aerobic agents with direct disposition of the aero-bic-anaerobic and anaerobic-aerobic agents can be claimed as the enough stimulus for any race walker.

7. Too extended run training quantity completed by the race walker in the junior category can have a nega-tive infl uence on his sport level.


[1] Cempla J, Mleczko E: Badania zależności między obję-tością, strukturą i dynamiką obciążeń treningowych bie-gaczy a rozwojem sportowym i reakcjami fi zjologicznymi na wysiłek fi zyczny o różnej mocy. Seria: Wydawnictwa Monografi czne, Kraków, AWF, 1989; 33.

[2] Chmielewski T (ed.): Chód sportowy. I Konferencja nauko-wo-metodyczna. Kalisz, Polskie Towarzystwo Naukowe Kultury Fizycznej, 1978.

[3] Kisiel K: Konstrukcja treningu w chodzie sportowym dla juniora. Lekkoatletyka, 1992; 6.

[4] Walaszczyk A: Charakterystyka obciążeń treningowych w chodzie sportowym (na przykładzie Roberta Korze-niowskiego). Trening, 1996; 1.

[5] Kisiel K: Trening sprawności fi zycznej w chodzie sporto-wym. Warszawa, RCMSKFiS, 1988.

– 41 –

ANAEROBIC THRESHOLD DETERMINATION BASED ON CHANGES IN RMS-EMG CURVE AND RESPIRATORY PARAMETERS

WYZNACZANIE PROGU ANAEROBOWEGO U SPORTOWCÓW METODĄ ODDECHOWĄ

I ELEKTROMIOGRAFICZNĄ

Anna Tyka*, Tomasz Pałka**, Aleksander Tyka***, Tomasz Cisoń**, Szczepan Wiecha****, Aleksandra Stawiarska*****, Agata Cebula*****

******MSc, Department of Recreation and Biological Regeneration, University School of Physical Education, Cracow; Institute of Physical Education, PWSZ, Nowy Sacz, Poland

******PhD, Institute of Human Physiology, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland******Prof. dr. habil., Institute of Human Physiology, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland ******MSc, Institute of Human Physiology, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland******MSc, Doctoral Studies, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland

Keywords: anaerobic threshold, respiratory parameters, rms-EMG curveSłowa kluczowe: próg anaerobowy, metoda oddechowa, krzywa elektromiograficzna

Aim of the work. To compare two methods of anaerobic threshold (AT) determination: respiratory para-meters analysis and changes in rms-EMG curve.

Material and methods. Monitoring of rms-EMG curve was used during a cycloergometer test to exhaustion as a way of the anaerobic threshold detection and was compared with ventilatory parameters in 15 healthy ice hockey players.

Results. The AT was detected on the same level on the average. Comparing two methods – the ice hockey players reached the anaerobic thresholds at the level of 56% (respiratory data) and 55.5% (rms-EMG data) of maximum work load (MWL) with correlation coefficient r = 0.896.

Conclusion. The rms-EMG curve analysis provide the results of the same accuracy but faster and in more convenient way, in comparison to other methods of AT determination.

Cel badań. Zweryfikowanie u sportowców możliwości stosowania dwóch nieinwazyjnych metod wyznaczania progu anaerobowego: oddechowej i elektromiograficznej.

Materiał i metody. Przebadano 15 mężczyzn profesjonalnie uprawiających hokej na lodzie. Poddani oni zostali stopniowanemu wysiłkowi o narastającej intensywności, w trakcie którego rejestrowano bioelektryczne napięcie (rms-EMG) mięśni szkieletowych (v. lateralis i r. femoris) oraz wskaźniki wymiany oddechowej, co pozwoliło określić wysokość mocy na progu anaerobowym (WL) – wentylacyjnym i elektromiograficznym.

Wyniki. Przeciętne wyniki WL na progu anaerobowum kształtowały się na zbliżonym poziomie. Próg wenty-lacyjny zarejestrowano na poziomie 56% MWL, a elektromiograficzny – na 55,5% MWL. Wysoka wartość współ-czynnika korelacji liniowej (r = 0,896) dowodzi, że wyznaczanie progu anaerobowego metodą elektromiograficzną jest równie dokładne jak za pomocą innych rutynowych metod.

Wnioski. Niewątpliwie zaletą tej metody elektromiograficznej jest możliwość łatwego, nieinwazyjnego wy-znaczania progu w naturalnych dla sportowca warunkach terenowych.



A. Tyka, T. Pałka, A. Tyka, T. Cisoń, Sz. Wiecha, A. Stawiarska, A. Cebula

– 42 –

Introduction

It is possible that during incremental exercise the non-linear changes of IEMG coincide with the increase of muscle cell lactate concentration. Thus the IEMG as an index of anaerobic threshold (AT) had been used before [1–5].

Viitasalo et al. [4] suggested that the non-linear increase in IEMG – intensity curve can be already detected before the anaerobic threshold is reached. Previously [9] it was revealed that the dislinearity of rms-EMG indices were not due to fatigue but due to a change in the skin electrical properties.

Furthermore it seems that the analyses of rms-EMG curve provide the results faster and in more convenient way, in comparison to other methods of AT determina-tion.

The main aim of this study was to compare two methods of AT determination: respiratory parameters analysis and changes in rms-EMG curve. The further task was to establish the utility of both procedures dur-ing incremental exercise.

Material and methods

The study group consisted of fi fteen ice hockey players, mean age 18.4 years (16–18 years), body weight 72.4 ± 7.60 kg, body height 179.1 ± 4.13 cm (Table 1).

The study was conducted in the Department of Human Physiology, University of Physical Education, Cracow (with 23–25 ˚C and 45–50% ambient tempera-ture and relative humidity, respectively).

Graded exercise test to exhaustion was performed on a cycloergometer (Jaeger ER900D, Germany). The

Table 1. Basic anthropological data and maximum levels of some physiological indices; MWL – maximal work load

Parameter Mean ± SD Min. – Max.

Age(years) 18.4 ± 3.48 16 – 28

Height(cm) 179.1 ± 4.13 174 – 188

Weight(kg) 72.4 ± 7.60 61.3 – 88

V.O2max

(L · min–1) 3.99 ± 0.29 3.52 – 4.53

V.O2max

(ml · kg–1 · min–1) 55.30 ± 4.28 49.4 – 64.3

MWL(W) 328.3 ± 26.50 275.0 – 375.0

MWL(W · kg–1) 4.55 ± 0.31 4.08 – 5.16

V.

Emax(L · min–1) 143.9 ± 16.62 111.2 – 176.8

HRmax 189 ± 11.32 174.0 – 212.0Figure 1. The determination of anaerobic threshold on the basis of individual data of subject R.F.

Anaerobic threshold determination based on changes in rms-EMG and respiratory parameters

– 43 –

exercise test was preceded by 3 minutes of warming up (the load was set at 50 W) and then every two minutes during exercise, work load (WL) was increased by 25 W. The maximum values of physiological indices are presented in Table 1.

The level of pulmonary gas exchange was evalu-ated every 30 seconds by means of Medikro 919 E equipment (Medikro Ltd, Kuopio, Finland).

Skin surface electromyography (rms-EMG) of work-ing muscles (vastus lateralis and rectus femoris) was recorded on-line and analyzed every two minutes, which coincided with work load increase, by using the ME 3000 EMG Analyser Software (Mega Electronics, Kuopio, Finland) and the surface electrodes (ROO-A, medicotest, Denmark).

The level of anaerobic threshold determined by means of Wasserman et al. formula [7] was compared to the concomitant changes in rms-EMG, especially of av-erage and area values (µV). All evaluations were carried out according to Hänninen et al. [9]. To determine the anaerobic threshold pulmonary ventilation (VE), carbon dioxide elimination (VCO2) and ratio values as well as average and area values (µV) were plotted separately against the corresponding fi gures of work load (Fig. 1). The anaerobic threshold level was evaluated in two dif-ferent ways separately: at fi rst on the basis of changes in respiratory indices, then from rms-EMG values and then from both the respiratory and rms-EMG curves. The AT was determined to be just below the level at which the linearity of above curves disappeared [7].

Results

The level of anaerobic threshold (AT) determined on the basis of pulmonary ventilation (VE ), pulmonary ventila-tion to oxygen uptake ratio (VE/VO2 ), respiratory quotient (RQ) and carbon dioxide elimination (VCO2 ) reached the average value of 216.7±30.86 W (Table 2).

Discussion

It has been established that the evaluation of anaerobic threshold on the basis of respiratory parameters seems to be rather exact. It depends on the effect of lactate moved into the blood which induces changes in the acid-base balance as well as changes in the pulmo-nary ventilation and other respiratory indices. It seems to be true that the increased lactate accumulation in-side the muscle cell normally precede the blood lactate changes.

These process can change the surface EMG spec-trum which may be related to the measurement of EMG on fatigued muscle [5, 6]. The changes of impulses con-ductivity through sarcolemma are very often coupled with muscle metabolism. It has also been suggested that EMG signals depend on the muscle fi bre type to be recruited during gradually increased exercise [1, 10].

It is probable that at the anaerobic threshold fast muscle fi bres (IIa) are dominant, while above the an-

Table 2. Individual values of work load at the level of AT evaluated from respiratory and rms-EMG values; WL – work load, MWL – maximal work load

Respiratory AT (X)Mean ± SD

EMGAT (Y)

Mean ± SD

WL (W) 217 ± 30.86 218 ± 33.36

% MWL 60.0 66.5

r 0.896

The data of rms-EMG, especially average and area values – the best indicators of the anaerobic threshold – revealed AT being on the average level 218.33 ± 33.36 W. The difference between these two values has shown no statistically signifi cant differences (Table 2), proving that the AT was detected on the same level on the av-erage as the ice hockey players reached the anaerobic thresholds at the level of 56% (respiratory data) and 55.5% (rms-EMG data) of maximum work load (MWL). The correlation coeffi cient calculated between ventilato-ry and rms-EMG values at the anaerobic threshold levels reached the value as high as 0.896 (Fig. 2).

Figure 2. The regression line between work load (WL) values at respiratory and rms-EMG anaerobic thresholds

A. Tyka, T. Pałka, A. Tyka, T. Cisoń, Sz. Wiecha, A. Stawiarska, A. Cebula

– 44 –

aerobic threshold the recruitment of fast muscle fi bres (IIx) begins to increase during incremental exercise [5, 8, 10]. Furthermore, suggested rms-EMG method of anaerobic threshold detection seems to be most easy to perform among other methods.

There are some technical diffi culties in the mea-surement of oxygen uptake and other respiratory indi-ces because the gas analyser and gas volumemeter are necessary, what is more the mask and valves with tube can constrict the movements. Blood lactate analy-sis needs the very often sampling of blood being very inconvenient for the subjects.

Using the simple rms-EMG method for anaerobic threshold determination one can evaluate the anaerobic threshold very fast, during exercise test yet and supply the results to the coach. The method is very convenient for the subjects and easy to follow.

Conclusion

In comparison to other methods of anaerobic thresh-old determination the rms-EMG curve analysis provide the results of the same accuracy but faster and in more convenient way.


[1] Helal JN, Guezennec CY, Goubel F: The aerobic-anaero-bic transition: re-examination of the threshold concept in-cluding an electromyographic approach. [2] Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol, 1987; 56 (6): 643–649.

[3] Nagata A, Muro M, Moritani T, Yoshida T: Anaerobic threshold determination by blood lactate and myoelectric signals, [4] Jpn J Physiol, 1981; 31(4): 585–597.

[5] Tesch PA, Komi PV, Jacobs I, Karlsson J, Viitasalo JT: Infl uence of lactate accumulation of EMG frequency spectrum during repeated concentric contractions. Acta Physiol Scand, 1983; 119 (1): 61–67.

[6] Viitasalo JT, Luhtanen P, Rahkila P, Rusko H: Electromyo-graphic activity related to aerobic and anaerobic threshold in ergometer bicycling. Acta Physiol Scand, 1985; 124 (2): 287–293.

[7] Tyka A, Żuchowicz A, Kubica R, Pałka T: The relationship between electromyographic (IEMG AT) and ventilator (VE AT) thresholds in men during graded exercise different ambient temperatures. Proceedings of the 4th Annual Congress of European College of Sport Science. Rome, 14–17 July 1999: 635.

[8] Stulen FB, DeLuca CJ: Frequency parameters of the myo-electric signal as a measure of muscle conduction velocity. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng, 1981; 28 (7): 515–523.

[9] Wasserman K, Whipp BJ, Koyl SN, Beaver WL: Anaerobic threshold and respiratory gas exchange during exercise. J Appl Physiol, 1973; 35 (2): 236–243.

[10] Skinner JS, McLellan TH: The transition from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism. Res Q Exerc Sport, 1980; 51 (1): 234–248.

[11] Hänninen O, Airaksinen O, Karipohja M, Manninen K, Sih-vonen T, Pekkarinen H: On-line determination of anaerobic threshold with rms-EMG. Biomed Biochim Acta, 1989; 48 (5–6): S493–503.

[12] Tyka A, Pałka T, Tyka AK, Szyguła Z, Cisoń T: The infl u-ence of ambient temperature on mechanical power at anaerobic threshold determined by blood lactate and myoelectric sygnale. Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 2009; 22 (1): 1–6.

– 45 –

ASSESSMENT OF SOME MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND SPECIFIC MOTOR ABILITIES

IN YOUNG WATER POLO PLAYERS IN THREE DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS

OCENA WYBRANYCH CECH MORFOLOGICZNYCH I SPRAWNOŚCI SPECJALNEJ MŁODYCH ZAWODNIKÓW

UPRAWIAJĄCYCH PIŁKĘ WODNĄ W TRZECH OKRESACH ONTOGENEZY

Igor Stirn*

**PhD, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Sport, Gortanova 22, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Key words: water polo, young, evaluation, specific skillsSłowa kluczowe: piłka wodna, ocena techniki, umiejętności ruchowe

Aim of the work. In order to identify and monitor talents, an evaluation of morphological characteristics and motor abilities of young athletes has become a must. The aim of the study was to ascertain which of the special skill tests contributed most to the differentiation of three different age groups of water polo players.

Methods. Two anthropometrical (body height and mass), one functional (vital capacity) and eight specific technical skills were performed by 264 players categorised in three different age groups 11 to 12 (G1), 13 to14 (G2) and 15 to 16 (G3) years of age.

Results. All variables under observation showed significant differences between the groups (p < 0.05). All the skills evaluated by our tests showed linear progression with respect to the growing up process. The diffe rences remain significant (p < 0.05) even when the three morphological tests were set as covariates in the statistic analysis, suggesting therefore that other factors (non-morphologic) had an important role. Using discriminant analysis we found that G1 and G2 were best differentiated by specific skill tests without a ball, while G2 and G3 were best differentiated by ball handling tests. This might be the cause of a well-known principle of motor learning that is considered in a training process – simpler motor skills without a ball are developed first and are later upgraded to more demanding ball handling skills.

Conclusion. Skill tests without the ball better differentiate between G1 and G2, while tests with the ball better differentiate between G2 and G3.

Cel pracy. Do identyfikowania i monitorowania rozwoju talentu sportowego niezbędne jest tworzenie mo-delowych charakterystyk morfologicznych oraz ocena zdolności motorycznych młodych sportowców. Celem pracy było określenie poziomu zdolności piłkarzy wodnych, badanych w trzech okresach ontogenezy, za pomocą trafnych testów sprawności fizycznej.

Metody. Zastosowano metodę obserwacji poziomu rozwoju morfofunkcjonalnego piłkarzy wodnych. Badania przeprowadzono na grupie 264 piłkarzy wodnych w wieku 11–16 lat. Dokonano podziału na trzy grupy ze względu na wiek badanych: 11–12 lat (G1), 13–14 lat (G2) oraz 15–16 lat (G3). Materiał zebrano posługując się metodami powszechnie stosowanymi w antropometrii do pomiaru podstawowych cech somatycznych – wysokości i masy



Igor Stirn

– 46 –

ciała. Poza tym brano pod uwagę pomiary wydolności i sprawności motorycznej, mierzonej z zastosowaniem ośmiu specjalistycznych testów.

Wyniki. Wszystkie badane parametry wykazały istotne zróżnicowanie statystyczne w obrębie badanych grup (p < 0,05). Wszystkie umiejętności techniczne weryfikowane w testach wykazały liniową progresję względem przyro-stu wysokości ciała. Istotne statystycznie różnice (p < 0,05), wykazane w trzech porównywalnych testach, sugerowały istotną rolę czynników pozamorfologicznych. Wykorzystując analizę dyskryminacyjną wskazano, że w grupach G1 i G2 testami najbardziej różnicującym badanych były testy bez użycia piłki. W grupach G2 i G3 największą wartość diagnostyczną wykazywały natomiast testy z piłką. Przedstawione wyniki korespondują z dobrze znanym prawem uczenia się czynności motorycznych, zgodnie z którym w procesie treningu proste czynności ruchowe (bez piłki) rozwijają się szybciej w porównaniu do trudniejszych czynności związanych z opanowaniem piłki.

Wnioski. Testy motoryczne bez użycia piłki wyraźniej różnicują młodszych piłkarzy wodnych, podczas gdy testy oparte na umiejętnościach związanych z opanowaniem piłki wyraźniej różnicują starszych zawodników. Wyniki badań własnych potwierdzają znane prawo uczenia się, iż proste umiejętności rozwijają się szybciej.

Introduction

Monitoring morphological characteristics and mo-tor abilities has become essential in evaluation of the young athlete’s performance capacities. The data col-lected from testing the young athletes can be used for an early identifi cation of talented players, for planning and executing training sessions and for positioning players to the most suitable playing positions.

There are four key stages in the talent identifying pro-cess: detection, identifi cation, development and fi nally se-lection [1]. Detection is a process when potential players that are currently not involved in water polo are being dis-covered. Because of specifi city of the sport in question, this stage is limited to the observation of the children dur-ing „out of water” sport activities, especially team sports (i.e. soccer, basketball, handball etc.) and swimming. An eye of a skilled expert should detect child’s general ca-pabilities such as whole body coordination, game sense, anticipation, decision making, attitude etc. Identifi cation refers to the process of recognition current players with the potential to become elite players [1] by measuring and analysing physical, physiological, psychological and sociological attributes of technical abilities either alone or in combination [2]. „Identifi ed” players are then provided with a suitable learning and training environment, which enables them to realize their potential. Finally the most successful players are selected to the team.

In individual sports (i.e. running, rowing, cycling) predictors of performance are more easily scientifi cally prescribed than in team games where identifi cation and selection of the players are more demanding [3]. Three aspects had been described concerning the identifi ca-tion of talented players in water polo: physiological, psy-chological and sociological [4]. However, in some other research, it was found that physiology and morphology parameters were not essential in the early detection of

talented players. Other factors signifi cantly contributed to the success – game knowledge and game sense [5], team coherence [6], status of maturity [7], anticipation and decision making [4].

Lidor et al. [8] found that the only test that showed differences between the selected and non-selected team handball players was the test which required specifi c technical skill. Few other physical and motor tests that were commonly used by the coaches were not sensitive enough to distinguish between mentioned groups; the results of these tests for the selected and non-selected players overlapped. Spamer and Coetzee [9] also repor-ted that skill tests better differentiated between the more and less talented players than physical and motor tests.

Due to the water environment, the game of water polo demands specifi c skills and abilities. According to this fact and to the results of previous studies, specifi c tests performed in the water were developed and ap-plied in order to evaluate players’ abilities. Beside basic anthropometrical (body height and mass) and vital ca-pacity we executed eight specifi c tests in the water that presumably cover the most important abilities required in water polo: horizontal start in the water, swimming velocity with and without the ball, swimming endurance, agility, strength endurance of the egg-beater kick, verti-cal jump out of the water and throwing velocity.

The aim of the study was to ascertain which of the listed tests contribute most to the differentiation of three different age groups (12, 14 and 16 years of age) of water polo players.

Methods

The data was collected in a four-year period. Talented young players (according to the opinion of their coaches) from the best Slovenian water polo clubs were invited to do the testing once every year. For a purpose of this re-

Assessment of some morphological characteristics and specific motor abilities in young water polo players...

– 47 –

search we divided them in three different age groups: 11 to 12 (labelled G1) 13 to 14 (G2) and 15 to 16 (G3) years of age that consisted of 52, 133 and 79 players respectively.

Body height (BH), body mass (BM) and vital capa-city (VC) were measured and eight specifi c tests were performed in the water: • 5-metre swim (S5): player fl oated in the water with

the back of his head in contact with the goal line (as waiting for the start of the game). On a signal (whistle and a swing with an arm), he started swimming with maximum velocity. The time from the starting signal to the moment when the head reached the marked spot that was positioned 5 m from the starting line, was measured. Each player performed this test twice and better result was used for further analysis.

• 25-metre swim (S25): on a starting command player pushed with legs off the swimming pool wall and started to swim with maximum velocity to the end of a 25-me-tre distance pool. Each player performed this test twice and better result was used for further analysis.

• 25-metre ball dribbling (BD25): player fl oated at the starting wall of the swimming pool in a horizontal po-sition with his legs on the wall. In one hand he held a ball. On a starting command player pushed off the swimming pool wall, released the ball from the hand, placed it in front of the head and started to dribble the ball with maximum velocity to the end of a 25-metre distance pool. Each player performed this test twice and better result was used for further analysis.

• 200-metre swim (S200): on a starting command player pushed with legs off the swimming pool wall and started to swim with maximum velocity for 200 meters. Each player performed this test once.

• 4 × 5-metre swimming in changing directions (S4X5): player fl oated in the water with the back of his head in contact with the goal line. On a signal (whistle and a swing with an arm), he started swimming with max-imum velocity to the other line which was strained 5 metres away from the starting line. He touched that line and swam back again to the starting line and then he repeated this path once again. Player swam four times fi ve meters with maximum velocity. Each player performed this test once.

• Egg-beater kick in vertical position with a 5 kg weight (VEK, Fig. 2): player held the 5 kg weight with both hands above the head in vertical body position and traded water performing egg-beater kicks. Player ended the task when he was not able to keep the elbows out of the water.

• One-hand vertical jump out of the water and reach test (VJW): player jumped out vertically of the wa-ter and touched with one hand the measuring scale as high as possible as demonstrated in Figure 1. The distance from the water surface to the spot on a measuring scale was measured. Each player performed this test fi ve times and the best result was used for further analysis. The measuring board had been previously calibrated to the water surface using a small weight on the end of a rope as sug-gested by Platanou [10]

• Throw the ball at the goal (TG): subjects were asked to throw the ball with dominant arm with maximum velocity. The ball was thrown in the direction of the 5-metre distant radar (Speed Check Personal Sport Radar, Tribar Industries, Quebec, Canada) which measured the velocity of the ball. Radar was posi-

Figure 1. Vertical jump out of the water test Figure 2. Egg-beater kick with weight in vertical position

Igor Stirn

– 48 –

tioned behind the net of a water polo goal, which pro-tected it from the impact. It was positioned in front of subject’s right shoulder, approximately at the height of the release of a ball to enable its most direct (op-timal) path to the radar. The throws were executed without faints, like penalty throws. The highest velo-city of the fi ve throws was used for further analysis.

Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and discriminant analysis were executed. Normality of the data was checked using the Smirnov-Kolmogorov test and Levene`s test of homogeneity of variance had

been done before ANOVA and discriminant analysis were performed.

Results

Average values and corresponding standard deviations of all tests for all three age groups are shown in Table 1.

The values of all variables under observation showed approximately linear progression (Fig. 3).

The differences between the groups were statis-tically signifi cant in all variables under observation (p < 0.05). In accordance with expectations there

Figure 3. The common display of all variables. For better transparency, data is shown in two graphs, with their original units. Note linear progression in all variables. Abbreviations are listed in the Methods section. The corresponded units are: VC (l), S5 (s), S4X5 (s), S25 (s), BD (s), BH (cm), S200 (s), VJW (cm), TG (km/h), BM (kg), VEK (s). All variables show differences between the groups (p < 0.05), which are not marked on the graph, due to the transparency

Table 1. Average values and corresponding SD for all variables

Test UnitG1 G2 G3

Me SD Me SD Me SD

BH cm 161.41 7.87 170.43 8.25 180.30 6.10

BM kg 54.88 10.30 62.54 12.93 74.92 10.92

VC l 3.45 0.60 4.10 0.74 5.24 0.72

S5 s 3.81 0.37 3.48 0.42 3.11 0.33

S4X5 s 16.91 1.56 15.07 1.58 13.41 1.16

S25 s 17.57 1.62 15.57 1.43 13.83 0.89

S200 s 201.97 29.20 178.00 22.76 154.41 15.71

BD25 s 19.54 2.59 17.19 1.92 14.77 1.23

VJW cm 116.96 9.78 130.16 11.26 141.76 8.60

TG km/h 49.58 5.61 55.77 5.74 63.85 4.95

VEK s 20.48 14.69 32.17 21.49 45.54 24.52


– 49 –

were signifi cant differences in body weight and mass between the players of different age groups, therefore we set these two variables as covariates. Even so, the differences between the groups in all variables remain statistically signifi cant.

The results of discriminant analysis showed that performed tests clearly differentiated the G1 from G2 and G2 from G3. Only one signifi cant discriminant func-tion was revealed in both cases; canonical rxy=0.58 and rxy=0.68 for differentiation of G1 to G2 and G2 to G3 respectively, while the accounted variance was 100 % and p=0.000 in both cases.

Structure matrix presenting the correlation of each variable with the discriminant function is presented in Table 2. G1 and G2 are best differentiated by the S25, VEJ and S4X5, however all other tests differentiate the groups signifi cantly. All tests also signifi cantly differen-tiate between the G2 and G3, however the highest cor-relation with the discriminant function showed VC, TG, BD25 and S25.

Discussion

The aim of the study was to fi nd out which of the per-formed specifi c skills test differentiate best three dif-ferent age groups. In general it was found that G1 (11 and 12 years of age) and G2 (13 and 14 years of age)

were best differentiated by the special skill tests without a ball (S25, VEJ, S4X5) while G2 and G3 (15 and 16 years of age) were best differentiated by the tests in which players handle a ball (TG, BD).

All tests developed and performed in this research can be labelled specifi c skill tests. Skill tests have shown to contain more information to the coaches with respect to the basic motor and physical tests [8]. Tests were chosen or developed in accordance with the de-mands of a modern water polo game. Good water polo player should be a good swimmer; swimming fast, fi rst without the ball (S25) and then with the ball (25BD) is one of the most essential demands of the game. Water polo player opposite to the swimmer does not perform starting jump from the edge of the pool, neither he is allowed to push off the pool wall – he must start from the water. Water starts are obligatory every time the player starts movement in any direction; from the rest-ing position or when changing directions. This happens when there is an unpredictable change in ball posses-sion (start in a counter attack or defending counter at-tack), after the whistle of a referee or in accordance with playing situation in general – i.e. attacking the opposite player who is in a situation to score a goal. A good “water start” is a combination of a quick reac-tion to the situation (to a visual or/and sound signal) and an effective horizontal egg-beater kick in coordination with the crawl arm strokes. Water starts usually prolong in short sprints and are performed very frequently dur-ing the game. S5 was used to evaluate this skill. As already mentioned players frequently change directions of swimming. This skill includes quick stopping, rotat-ing the body for 180° (or any other angle) and starting in a new direction. We evaluated this skill-performing test labelled S4X5. Another basic technical water polo skill is vertical jump out of the water (VJW). A player must raise his body out of the water when receiving and throwing the ball and when trying to intercept it. Our test was similar to the one used by Falk et al. [4]. Namely, it is possible also to evaluate the “neto” raise out of water; Platanou [10] measured the difference between the reach with the extended arm at body in a fundamental vertical fl oating position (water surface at the acromion level) and a reach when the player jump out of the wa-ter. This way the share of anthropometric dimensions (particularly upper body and arm length) would be an-nulated, however in our opinion that absolute pitch is more important to the game and the “absolute reach” test is also simpler to carry out. There are a lot of du-els during a game, when the opponent players press

Table 2. The correlation of each variable with the discriminant function

G1 vs. G2 G2 vs. G3

Function Function

S25 0.8593 VC 0.8106

VEJ –0.7716 TG 0.7780

S4X5 0.7389 BD25 –0.7493

BH –0.7036 S25 –0.7246

BD25 0.7029 S200 –0.6957

TG –0.6891 BH 0.6899

AS –0.6653 AS 0.6402

VC –0.5927 S4X5 –0.6077

S200 0.5725 VEJ 0.5893

S5 0.5196 BM 0.5326

VEK –0.4108 S5 –0.4941

BM –0.3973 VEK 0.3830

Igor Stirn

– 50 –

against each other, using fast alternating egg-beater kicks. Therefore we measured the strength endurance of egg-beater kick in a vertical position with additional weight (VEK). Swimming endurance is important as well, because the game might not stop for several min-utes (S200) and players have to swim up and down the pool without a rest. 200-metre swim test was found to be correlated to the critical velocity, which was defi ned as the swimming velocity over a very long period of time without exhaustion [11]. Swimming tests in many other distances like 50 m, 100 m, 400 m, 4 times 50 m, etc. were performed in different studies. To our opin-ion this tests are redundant in evaluating the swimming abilities of young players; the correlation between S25 and S200 in our study was 84.3%, therefore the cor-relation of a swim test on any other distance to S25 or S200 would probably be very high containing very little new information. Swimming tests at different distances performed in some other studies were used in order to evaluate condition of a chosen metabolic mechanism, which apparently was not the subject of our study. And fi nally, throw at the goal is one of the most important skills of a player. One of the major characteristics of a quality throw is a great velocity of the ball released from the hand (TG).

There were evident differences between the num-bers of players tested in every group. The number of the youngest players (11 to 12 years of age) is the smallest – at this age many players only began to play water polo and their skills are not well developed yet, so they were not chosen for testing by their coaches. On the other hand, the 13 and 14 years old players presented the largest group – it looks like this is the most important period for the coaches and the players themselves to gain additional information about their abilities. Later, at the age of 16, the selection process might have been fully presented. The evidences for this statement were smaller numerous of the tested players in G3 with respect to the G2 and smaller standard de-viations in all variables under observation with respect to both other groups. This implied that players in G3 already presented roughly selected players.

In accordance with the expectations the results of all tests improved signifi cantly from group to group (p < 0.05). Better results can easily be attributed to growing up process in general – to changes in body weight, mass and vital capacity. However, differences remain signifi cant even when we excluded these vari-ables by setting them as covariates in the ANOVA cal-culation. Other factors such as involvement in training

process in general might be the cause. According to a general training plan running on in clubs involved in this research young players train approximately 4.5, 7 and 9 hours per week at the age of 12, 14 and 16 years respectively.

Values of all observing variables showed linear progression implying improvement in measured skills with respect to their age and/or involvement in a sport. Average times of a 25 meters crawl (S25) 15.6 ± 1.4 seconds for G2 and 13.8 ± 0.9 seconds for G3 were better than the average time reported by Bratusa and Dopsaj [12], which was 16.1 ± 0.7 for junior players of Slovenian water polo team playing at perimeter posi-tions (backs). Unfortunately many other tests that had been performed in that research (i.e. 50 and 1500 m crawl, 25 m backstroke, 25 m crawl using legs only, 10 x 50 m crawl) were not comparable to our data.

Falk et al. [4] tested 12–14 years old players which corresponds to the group G2 in our study, however only two tests could be compared – S200 and VJW. They reported an average result 177.1 ± 9.6 seconds and 189.2 ± 6.1 seconds for the players that were later selected to the Israel youth (U17) national team or not, respectively. An average result of selected players cor-responded perfectly to our result 178.0 ± 22.8. It must be noted that in our study players swam in a 25-metre pool (benefi t) starting without jumping from the starting block (defi cit) and in Falk`s study swimming test was started with the jump of the starting block (benefi t) in a 50-metre swimming pool (defi cit). Very similar results in both studies were obtained in jumping out of the wa-ter as well: 129 ± 11 cm for selected and 130 ± 6 cm for non-selected players in Falk et. al [4], and 130 ± 11 in our study. Throwing velocity has been measured in several studies, however only adult players were mea-sured and velocities from 65–84 km/h were reported [13–17]. Throwing velocities showed progression from G1 to G3, and the highest throwing velocities measured in the oldest players in our study nearly approached to these values. Trying to discus other results of the tests performed in our study in a certain age group of players we found that there is a vast defi cit on the subject in the literature.

The variables that differentiate the G1 and G2 most were the ones that estimated the basic skills in the wa-ter – swimming without a ball, jumping out of water and swimming with changing direction. These are the skills that young water polo players are taught fi rst. When joining the water polo club many of children are non-swimmers or very poor swimmers, therefore many ba-


– 51 –

sic swimming drills are done in their training program. In order to improve their overall body coordination and to gain sense for the water young water polo players are usually taught all four swimming techniques, how-ever crawl and breaststroke`s leg work are the most emphasized. Later on crawl is transformed into water polo crawl, with its main characteristics – head out of water, shorter stroke length and higher stroke fre-quency, while breaststroke`s leg work is developed in a egg-beater kick. Some children learn faster than the others and differences between them occur. It is pos-sible that after some time all young players manage to master basic techniques to some degree and the dif-ferences in these skills are not so evident any more. Instead, the differences in specifi c ball handling skills occur – in dribbling and throwing the ball. The ability of throwing a ball with a maximal velocity is an important factor for water polo players. An individual’s maximal throwing velocity depends on body segments charac-

teristics and especially on optimal throwing mechanics, which is in other words – throwing technique.

Conclusions

We found out that the battery of special tests used in our study signifi cantly differentiated between groups of players of different age. Tests that measured spe-cifi c skills in the water without the ball (swimming 25 meters, jump out of the water, swimming in changing directions) were better in differentiating younger play-ers (12- and 14-year-olds) and tests representing the ball handling skills were better in differentiating 14- and 16- year-old water polo players. The main principle of progressive learning and developing special motor skills needed and used in water polo as well as an overall involvement in the water polo sport, quantifi ed by hours per week spent in a training process, might present the most reasonable cause for this results.


[1] Williams AM, Reilly T: Talent identifi cation and develop-ment in soccer. J Sports Sci, 2000; 18(9): 657–67.

[2] Regnier G, Salmela JH, Russel SJ: Talent detection and development in sport; in Singer R, Murphey M, Tennant (ed.): A Handbook on research on sports Physiology. New York, Macmillan, 1993: 290–313.

[3] Reilly T, Secher N, Snell P, Williams C: Physiology of sports. London, E&FN Spon, 1993.

[4] Falk B, Lidor R, Lander Y, Lang B: Talent identifi cation and early development of elite water-polo players: a 2-year follow-up study. J Sports Sci, 2004; 22(4): 347–355.

[5] Hoare DG, Warr CR: Talent identifi cation and women’s soccer: an Australian experience. J Sports Sci, 2000; 18(9): 751–758.

[6] Reilly T, Williams AM, Nevill A, Franks A: A multidisciplinary approach to talent identifi cation in soccer. J Sports Sci, 2000; 18(9): 695–702.

[7] Pienaar AE, Spamer EJ, Steyn SC: The identifi cation and development of rugby talent among ten year old rugby players: a practical model. J Sports Sci, 1998; 16: 691–699.

[8] Lidor R, Falk B, Arnon M, Cohen Y, Segal G, Lander Y: Measurement of talent in team handball: the questionable use of motor and physical tests. J Strength Cond Res, 2005; 19(2): 318–325.

[9] Spamer EJ, Coetzee M: Variables which distinguish between talented and less talented participants in youth sport: a comparative study. Kinesi, 2002; 34(2): 141–152.

[10] Platanou T: Simple “in-water” vertical jump testing in water polo. Kinesi, 2006; 38(1): 57–62.

[11] Matkovic I, Gavrilovic P, Jovovic D, Thanopoulos V: Spe-cifi c swimming abilities test of top Yugoslav water polo players and its validation; in Biomechanics and medicine in swimming VIII. Proceedings of the VIII International Symposium on Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming. University of Jyvaskyla, Finland,1998: 259–264.

[12] Bratusa Z, Dopsaj M: Difference between general and specifi c swimming abilities of junior top water polo players based on their position within the team. Rev Port Cien Des, 2006; 6(2): 290–292.

[13] Whitting WC, Puffer JC, Finerman GA, Gregor RJ, Maletis GB: Three dimensional chinematographic analysis of water polo throwing in elite performers. Am J Sports Med, 1985; 13: 95–98.

[16] Darras NG: Maximum shooting velocity in water polo direct shot and shot with faints of the international level athlets participating in the 10th FINA World Cup; in Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming VIII, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, 1999; 185–190.

[14] Elliot BC, Armour J: The penalty throw in water polo: a cin-ematographic analysis. J Sports Sci, 1988; 6: 103–114.

[15] Feltner M, Taylor G: Three-dimensional kinetics of the shoulder, elbow, and wrist during a penalty throw in water polo. J Appl Biom, 1997; 13: 347–372.

[17] Stirn I, Strojnik V: Throwing with different kinetic chain. Rev Port Cien Des 6(2): 98–100.

– 53 –

THE RANK OF ONE-ON-ONE DUELS BASED ON WOMEN’S EUROPEAN FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

– ENGLAND 2005

RANGA POJEDYNKÓW 1 × 1 NA PRZYKŁADZIE MISTRZOSTW EUROPY W PIŁCE NOŻNEJ KOBIET –

ANGLIA 2005

Andrzej Soroka*

* PhD, Pope John II State School of Higher Vocational Education, Biala Podlaska, Poland

Key words: women’s football, game analysis, one-on-one gameSłowa kluczowe: piłka nożna kobiet, analiza gry, gra 1 × 1

Aim of the work. The information derived from match analysis is a straight and measurable reflection of a set match. In present practice of training such analyses are the foundation of success of a footballer and a team. Football belongs to team games. Their crucial specialities are technical-practical preparation of players and their contribution to the effort made in one-on-one duels, being the bases of the football duels in general.

The aim of this work is to analyze one-on-one game in offensive and defensive actions performed by fe-male teams on the strength of information gained from the competitions of the highest rank, such as the 2005 Women’s European Championships in 2005. The article is also aimed at defining the significance of one-on-one game within technical elements applied with a ball by women’s teams.

Material and methods. The research material was provided by the observation of 15 meetings, which were set during the competition. The systematic, external and categorized observations throughout the standardized research tool such as the author’s observation program were used as methods of gaining the data. A statistic analysis of the study results was done using the Statistica software.

Results and conclusions. The effectiveness of one-on-one duels, in a very essential way, varied the teams of winners from the teams of losers. The effectiveness of one-on-one game in defence formation was of the highest value, whereas among the players of the attack line this element of the game appeared least effective. Within analyzed technical elements, the biggest influence on the victory had efficiently performed one-on-one duels in defensive and offensive actions. Lesser but also equally essential influence on the success had accurate ball passes and the effectiveness of enforcing the execution of dead-ball situations.

Cel pracy. Informacje uzyskane na podstawie analiz meczowych są prostym i wymiernym odzwierciedleniem rozegranego meczu. We współczesnej praktyce szkoleniowej stanowią one podstawę sukcesu piłkarza i zespołu. Piłka nożna należy do gier zespołowych, jednak jej podstawą są pojedynki 1 × 1. W nich bowiem tkwią podsta-wowe zasady pojedynku piłkarskiego.

Celem pracy jest analiza gry 1 × 1 w działaniach ofensywnych i defensywnych kobiecych drużyn na pod-stawie informacji z zawodów najwyższej rangi, jakimi były Mistrzostwa Europy rozegrane w 2005 roku. Praca ma również określić znaczenie gry 1 × 1 pośród elementów technicznych wykonywanych z piłką przez zespoły kobiece.

Materiał i metody. Materiału badawczego dostarczyła obserwacja 15 spotkań, jakie zostały rozegrane podczas turnieju. Jako metodę pozyskiwania danych zastosowano obserwację systematyczną, zewnętrzną i skategoryzo-



Andrzej Soroka

– 54 –

waną przez wystandaryzowane narzędzie badawcze, jakim był autorski arkusz obserwacji. Wyniki badań poddano analizie statystycznej za pomocą programu Statistica.

Wyniki i wnioski. Skuteczność wykonania pojedynków 1 × 1 w istotny sposób różnicowała zespoły zwycięskie od przegranych. Skuteczność gry 1 × 1 formacji obronnej osiągnęła najwyższą wartość wykonania, natomiast zawodniczki linii ataku ten element gry wykonywały z najmniejszą skutecznością. Spośród analizowanych elemen-tów technicznych największy wpływ na zwycięstwo miały skuteczne pojedynki 1 × 1 w działaniach defensywnych i ofensywnych. Mniejsze, lecz równie istotne znaczenie miały podania celne i skuteczność egzekwowania stałych fragmentów gry.

Introduction

Team games are regarded as the essence of sport. Among them most popular is football, said to be the emanation of rivalry, competitiveness and coopera-tion. The range of issues linked with the specifi city of women’s football encourage into more accurate recog-nition of training methods in order to prepare players effectively and to make them ready to meet the require-ments of other competitors as well as in order to be-come better player, winners and to have more impres-sive technical-tactical skills in the individual and team dimensions. To cope with such requirements, it must be known, how the best teams are playing. Accordingly, the observation of football teams with the highest sport competences becomes very important.

The collected information, based on observations and match analysis, is a simple and measurable refl ec-tion of a set match. It is a specifi c way of approach to-wards the facts that have appeared during the match together with their understanding and interpretation. In present training practice these facts become a founda-tion of success of both: the player and the football team as a whole.

The analyses of female football game become cur-rently a matter of interest among research workers. For instance, certain observations were undertaken aiming at registration of female players’ actions with the ball during the game [1–4].

The individual skills and abilities of football play-ers are the foundation for achieving success in team games. They not only defi ne the mastery of a player but also contribute to quality of his or her and the others game [5].

Despite the fact that football is a team game, the success of technical preparation of each player is also very important to maintain the team’s prosperity. The player’s competence in performing technical elements has an infl uence on the effectiveness of technical-tactical actions, for instance in one-on-one duels. Emphasizing the contradictory character of major goals

of both playing teams, we can observe that in one-on--one duels are present the basic rules of football match-es. A footballer of the high class shapes the abilities of proper behaviour in constantly changing situations through duels in offensive and defensive actions.

The “one-on-one” means the competition of two players from opposite teams, who have contradictory goals. The one-on-one duel in attack is based on all reactions and actions of the player who owns the ball and whose goal is to escape from the rival and to fol-low the assignments of the game. However, the player’s actions against the player with the ball, in order to take it back or knock it, are called one-on-one duels in de-fence [6].

The aim and research hypothesis

The aim of the research is to analyze one-on-one games in offensive and defensive actions of elite female teams basing on precise information gathered during the 2005 Women’s European Football Championship in England. The additional aim is to defi ne the importance of one--on-one game within other technical elements applied with the ball as well as to examine whether the effec-tiveness of one-on-one duels differentiate the teams of winners from the teams of losers, and whether the ef-fectiveness of their carrying out is different in particular formations.

In this article the author tried to obtain answers to the following research questions:1. Does the effectiveness of one-on-one duels, in an

essential way, differentiate victorious and lost teams as well as players of particular formations?

2. Which from technical elements carried with the ball are most signifi cant during the female football match and how are characterized within them one-on-one duels?

3. Can quantitative and qualitative characteristics of one-on-one duels be comparable with the male game?

The rank of one-on-one duels based on Women’s European Football Championship – England 2005

– 55 –

Material and methods of gaining and analyzing the data

Observations were made for 15 (all) matches that were set during the European Women’s Championship held in England in 2005. The material for the study also comprised the observations of all 130 female players, who took part in the fi nal phase of the competition.

As a method of gaining the data, there were ap-plied systematic, external and categorized observa-tions through standardized research tool, which was the author’s sheet of observation. From the applicatory perspective, the observation was indirect in character owing to the use of DVD records. The observation was conducted while playing back the football matches re-corded previously on DVD records from the TV broad-cast.

In these analyses, the author took into account such one-on-one game observations, in which the player during the fi ght for the ball conducted physical contact, or owing the ball was attacked aggressively by the opponent, or fi nally by applying dribbling the player was winning the duel. In such cases, the number of won and lost duels was estimated in order to analyze the effectiveness of female footballers. The analyses were carried out for: in defence – getting back the ball, in offensive actions – attack with the ball, in defence and attack – ability to strike with the head [5].

The one-on-one duels were divided into “frontal” duels, in which the ball was between players from the attack and defence zones. In this case, the attacking player had in front of him the defender who covered the access to his goal. Another case of one-on-one duels

was when the striker had behind his back the defender; the attacking player was between the defender and the ball [7].

A statistical analysis of the study was carried out with the help of Statistica software. The use was made of the Student’s t-test for independent groups after previous verifi cation of arrangement of variables with the W Shapiro-Wilk test and the Brown-Forsyth test, which check homogeneity of variations. In the case of variables, which do not fulfi l these criteria, the U Mann--Whitney test was applied. In order to study essential differentiations between formations, test of one-factor analysis of variation (ANOVA) was applied, whereas in order to state differentiations and which averages are essentially differentiated, post hoc test of reasonably considerable difference (RIR) was used [8]. To identify actions with the ball, which were the most signifi cant in achieving success, the analysis of discriminatory func-tion was used [9, 10]. Statistically essential were those variables, in case of which the probability of random-ness was smaller than 0.05.

Research results

In the 2005 European Championship female players during the game were conducting from 184 to 212 duels (on average 198). Considering this technical element, the most effective were female players of championship team from Germany as well as teams from Norway and Denmark (Table 1).

Higher effectiveness of play was observed in de-fensive actions rather than in attack. The most effective in collecting the ball were the players from Germany,

Table 1. Structure and effectiveness of one-on-one duels

Seria

l nu

mbe

r

Country

one-on-one duels

one-on-one play in general won one-on-one duelsindicator of

effectivenessamount average in a match amount average

in a match

1. Germany 984 197 565 113 57.4

2. Norway 1062 212 550 110 51.7

3. Finland 766 192 366 92 47.8

4. Sweden 792 198 373 93 47.0

5. Denmark 570 190 300 100 52.6

6. France 602 201 279 93 46.3

7. England 615 205 294 98 47.8

8. Italy 551 184 244 81 44.3

Total average 198 2971 99 50.0

Andrzej Soroka

– 56 –

Finland, Denmark and Norway. The least effective were the teams from France and Italy, which did not play a signifi cant role in this championship. Similar situation appeared in one-on-one game in attack, in which the highest effectiveness presented the teams from Germany, Denmark and Norway. For other teams the measures of indicators of effectiveness in one-on--one duels were very similar, but on the lower level than those typical for best teams (Fig. 1).

A comparative analysis was applied in studying the effectiveness of one-on-one duels for the teams of the winners and the losers, as well as the effectiveness of one-on-one games in defence, and effectiveness of the

form of an offensive action, considering particular pitch zones. In these analyses statistically considerable dif-ferentiations were noticed. They appeared in effective-ness of one-on-one game in actions as a whole, in de-fence and middle zones, as well as in attack and middle zones. In each case, more effective were performers from the winning teams. The statistical differentiation did not appear in defence actions in attack zone and in offensive actions in defence zone (Tables 2 and 3).

Statistically signifi cant differentiations appeared while applying comparative analysis of one-on-one play effectiveness among players of particular forma-tions (Table 4).

Figure 1. Effectiveness of one-on-one (1x1) duels in defensive and offensive actions

66,5

49,257,6

46,1

58,6

37,8

53,7

40,6

58,6

46,451,5

41,5

57

39,1

48,3

39,6

57,1

42,9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

%

Germany Norway Finland Sweden Denemark France England Italy Total

1x1 in defense 1x1 in offense

Table 2. Differentiation in effectiveness of one-on-one duels in defence and attack of victorious and lost teams (Student's t-test)

One-on-one duels

Winning teams Losing teams Value of Student's t-test

Effectiveness ± SD Effectiveness ± SD Value of Student's t-test

Level of significance p

In defence 64.8 ± 6.9 51.1 ± 5.7 5.258 0.001*

In defence – defence zone 69.8 ± 8.4 54.8 ± 7.6 4.587 0.001*

In defence – middle zone 60.3 ± 7.2 48.3 ± 8.6 3.713 0.001*

In attack 48.8 ± 5.7 35.2 ± 6.9 5.258 0.001*

In attack – middle zone 51.7 ± 8.6 39.7 ± 7.2 3.713 0.001*

In attack – attack zone 45.2 ± 7.6 30.2 ± 8.4 4.587 0.001*

* determined by accurate and effective actions

1×1 in defence 1×1 in offence


– 57 –

The differences appeared between the players of defence line, midfi eld and attack lines with higher es-sential effectiveness of defenders as well as between midfi eld formations and attack formations with higher

essential play effectiveness of the players of the se-cond line (Table 5).

A comparative analysis of the qualitative activities of technical elements allowed the selection of an element,

Table 3. Differentiation of one-on-one duels in defensive and offensive actions of victorious and lost teams (U Mann-Whitney test)

Type of one-on-one duels Sum of ranks of the winners

Sum of ranks of the losers

Value of U Mann--Whitney test Accurate p

one-on-one duels in total 222.0 78.0 22.0 0.001*

in defence – attack zone 35.5 19.5 9.5 0.609

in attack – defence zone 24.5 30.5 9.5 0.609


Table 4. Differentiation in average values of indicators of effectiveness in one-on-one duels among formations (analysis of ANOVA variation)

Variable EffectSS

EffectMS

ErrorSS

ErrorMS Value F Value p

Indicators of effectiveness 7886.4 3943.2 7551.5 86.8 45.429 0.001*


Table 5. Differentiation in average values of indicators of effectiveness in one-on-one duels among formations (test of sensible es-sential difference by Tukey)

Formations DefenseM=62.2

MidfieldM=48.0

AttackM=39.5

Defence X 0.000* 0.001*

Midfield 0.001* X 0.002*

Attack 0.000* 0.002* X


Table 6. Differentiation of technical actions among victorious and lost teams (Student's t-test)

Technical actions

Winning teams Losing teams Student's t-test

X ± SD X ± SD Value ofStudent's t-test

Level of significance p

Effectiveness of one-on-one play in defense

64.8 ± 6.9 51.1 ± 5.7 5.258 0.001*

Effectiveness of one-on-one play in offense 48.8 ± 5.7 35.2 ± 6.9 5.258 0.001*

Effectiveness of shots 20.6 ± 6.8 9.2 ± 10.1 3.234 0.003*


Andrzej Soroka

– 58 –

which effectiveness of performance, in statistical terms, signifi cantly differentiated the teams of the winners and the losers. These were: accuracy of passes, accuracy of shots, total effectiveness of one-on-one play, effective-ness of one-on-one play in attack, effectiveness of one-on-one play in defence, and effectiveness of the form of

an offensive action i.e. fast attack, positional attack and execution of dead-ball situations (table 6 and 7).

Based on the analysis of a discriminant function, a search was made amongst the earlier selected va-riables for those which contributed to group discrimina-tion, namely factors that affected signifi cantly the win-

Table 7. Differentiation of technical actions among victorious and lost teams (U Mann-Whitney test)

Technical activities Sum of ranks of the winners

Sum of ranks of the losers

Value of U Mann--Whitney test Accurate p

Accuracy of passes 208.0 92.0 14.0 0.001*

Total effectiveness of one-on-one play 181.0 119.0 41.0 0.078

Effectiveness of fast attack 120.0 70,0 34.0 0.442

Effectiveness of positional attack 187.5 112.5 34.5 0.028*


Table 8. The results of selection of discriminating variables, which create their own “model” of variables, provided for further analy-sis

“Model” variables Wilks lambda

Partial Wilks lambda

F of elimination (2.30)

Level of si-gnificance p

Tolerance value

1-Tolerance (R-square)

Effectiveness of 1x1 play in defence 0.264 0.346 33.986 0.001* 0.542 0.457

Effectiveness of 1x1 in offence 0.198 0.461 21.039 0.001* 0.595 0.404

Accuracy of passes 0.123 0.739 6.350 0.021* 0.794 0.205

Effectiveness of executing dead-ball 0.108 0.841 3.398 0.081 0.892 0.107

Table 9. Factors of discriminating functions

Discrimination variable Function 1

Crude Standardized

Constant 27.708

Effectiveness of 1x1 play in defence 0.181 1.151

Effectiveness of 1x1 play in offence 0.159 0.998

Accuracy of passes 0.123 0.601

Effectiveness of executing dead-ball 0.020 0.442

Own value 9.930

Per cent of variation 100%


– 59 –

ning of a match. In this way, variables were selected that formed a “model” to be used in further analyses: effec-tiveness of one-on-one play in defense, effectiveness of one-on-one play in attack, accuracy of passes and effec-tiveness of the execution of dead-ball situations (Table 8).

The formulated function explained 100% of the total discriminant power. Crude results of coeffi cients after stan-dardization explained and determined the contribution of the variables in the canonical function. The study showed that the greatest contribution to the formulated function was made by discriminant variables describing the effec-tiveness of one-on-one plays in both defence and offence. In turn, the discriminant variables describing the accuracy of passes and execution of dead-ball situations had a con-siderably smaller contribution to the function (Table 9).

Discussion and conclusions

Discussion

The main references to obtained research results are the analyses of one-on-one play of male players, due to the lack of such literature studies that concern the analyses of mentioned element in female football.

The importance of one-on-one duels in football is emphasized by Żmuda [11], who points out that in Men’s European Championship in 2005 the ability of fast take--over of the ball was the main motto of the best teams, as well as those teams had better preparation for taking over the ball and winning one-on-one duels by almost every each player of the teams of winners.

The research proved a comparable, as among male footballers, number of set one-on-one duels during the match. During the World Championships in 1990 [12] and in 1994 [13] players set, on average: 194 and 205 du-els. Szwarc, following Gerisch and Reichelt [14], defi ned a number of duels, undertaken on average by players during the match, and estimated it from 200 to 270. The frequency (from 17 to 38) and the effectiveness (from 23% to 78%) of those duels varied among players and were infl uenced by the pitch position that players were occupying [15]. Those results were also affi rmed with Szwarc’s research, who showed that an average player undertook from 20 to 30 one-on-one duels during the meeting. The players of victorious teams, similarly, as it took place among women, more often than the teams of losers were undertaking one-on-one game [6].

Comparing the effects of analysis of undertaken re-search with the results of men’s play, it is observed that there is a considerable similarity in one-on-one duels

in defence, in which the teams of the winners achieve signifi cantly higher effectiveness of one-on-one duels than the others [16]. It was stated [13] that bigger suc-cess was achieved with the effective play in defence than in attack during the 1998 World Championship The best teams achieved the highest indicators of ef-fectiveness in defensive actions, whereas the effective play in offensive duels had no infl uence on occupied position in the competition.

Other studies also showed that the effectiveness of one-on-one rivalry in the attack, estimated for the team as a whole, did not differentiate the winners and the losers [13, 6], which was not confi rmed in women’s play during analyzed championships, because the one-on--one duels in attack, despite less signifi cant meaning in defensive actions, appeared to be important and ap-proved with essentially statistical differentiation.

Conclusions

1. In Women’s European Championships the effective-ness of one-on-one duels in an essential way differ-entiated the teams of winners from the teams of los-ers. The effectiveness of duels of defence formation was characterized with the highest effectiveness, whereas the players of attack line – with the lowest.

2. Amongst the technical elements performed with the ball, the highest infl uence on the team’s victory had effective one-on-one duels in defensive and offen-sive actions, whereas lower infl uence had well-aimed passes and effective execution of dead-ball situa-tions.

3. Very similar quantitative characteristic in play of women and men was confi rmed. However, qualita-tive analyses approved the convergence in effective-ness and meaning of one-on-one duels in defence actions, whereas in the attack more important mean-ing of one-on-one duels appeared in women’s play.

Despite the above presented explicit results, the author, following Szwarc [17], inclines to the statement which indicates that the theory of football game lacks un-equivocal defi nition of the “duel in one-on-one games”; it lacks natural understanding, interpretation and study of this technical-tactical element. Such an approach forces to undertake comparative analyses carefully and does not allow making the unequivocal judgments, however, it ought to be emphasized that defi ning the activities and presenting them in numbers helps to defi ne positively the dimension of undertaken studies.

Andrzej Soroka

– 60 –

[1] Konstadinidou X, Tsigilis N: Offensive playing profi les of football teams from the 1999 Women’s World Finals. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, 2005; 5(1): 61–71.

[2] Bergier J, Soroka A: Analiza akcji bramkowych w II Mistrzostwach Świata Kobiet do lat 19 Tajlandia – 2004; in Żak S, Spieszny M, Klocek T (ed.); Gry zespołowe w wychowaniu fi zycznym i sporcie. Studia i Monografi e, Kraków, AWF, 2005; 33: 197–203.

[3] Bergier J, Soroka A, Buraczewski T: Analysis of ac-tions ended with shots at goal in Women’s European Football Championship (England 2005); in Reilly T, Korkusuz F (ed.): Science and Football VI. The Pro-ceedings of the Six World Congress on Science and Football. London – New York, Taylor & Francis Group, 2008: 197–201.

[4] Soroka A, Bergier J: Charakterystyka działań juniorek i se-niorek grających na pozycji bramkarza – na przykładzie gry w piłkę nożną kobiet; in Bergier J (ed.): Piłka nożna kobiet. Biała Podlaska, PWSZ, 2006: 42–56.

[5] Wrzos J: Wielki futbol. Poznań, Ofi cyna Wydawnicza G&P, 2006.

[6] Szwarc A: Metody oceny techniczno-taktycznych działań piłkarzy nożnych. Gdańsk, AWFiS, 2003.

[7] Stępiński M: Taktyka współczesnej piłki nożnej. Poznań, Wydawnictwo Zysk i S-ka, 2007.

[8] Stanisz A: Przystępny kurs statystyki, t. I, Statystyki pod-stawowe. Kraków, StatSoft, 2006.

[9] Stanisz A: Przystępny kurs statystyki, t. III, Analizy wie-lowymiarowe. Kraków, StatSoft, 2007.

[10] Ryguła I: Proces badawczy w naukach o sporcie. Kato-wice, AWF, 2004.

[11] Żmuda W: Analiza gry najlepszych zespołów ME – 2000. Trener, 2000: 5: 31–37.

[12] Loy R: Wohin steuert der Fuβball?. Fussballtraining, 1994; 10: 16–24.

[13] Bergier J.: XVI Mistrzostwa Świata w Piłce Nożnej Fran-cja`98 – charakterystyka gry zawodników. Trener, 1999; 5: 9–14.

[14] Gerisch G, Reichelt M: Erhebungstechniken und praktische Anwendung der computer – und videogestutzen Spielana-lyse im Fussball; in Weber K, Kollath E, Schmidt GJ (ed.): Video und Computer im Leistungssport der Sportspiele. Cologne, Sport und Buch Strauss, 1991: 145–161.

[15] Gerisch G, Reichelt M: Computer – and video – aided analysis of football games; in Reilly T, Clarys J, Stribbe A (ed.): Science and Football II, London, EFN SPON, 1993: 167–173.

[16] Bergier. J.: Wielokierunkowa analiza działań z piłką w mistrzostwach świata w piłce nożnej – USA‘94. Rocz-nik Naukowy Instytutu Wychowania Fizycznego i Sportu w Białej Podlaskiej, 1997b; vol. III: 95–112.


– 61 –

THE INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL EFFORT IN WARM CONDITIONS ON CHANGING THE WHITE BLOOD

CELLS NUMBER IN TRAINING AND NON-TRAINING MEN

WPŁYW WYSIŁKU FIZYCZNEGO W PODWYŻSZONEJ TEMPERATURZE OTOCZENIA NA ZMIANY W OBRAZIE BIAŁOKRWINKOWYM

U TRENUJĄCYCH I NIETRENUJĄCYCH MĘŻCZYZN

Wanda Pilch*, Marta Szarek**, Dorota Gryka-Nowaczyk**, Michał Kaczmarek***, Wacław Mirek****

*** Dr. habil., Physiology and Biochemistry Unit, Institute of Human Physiology, University School of Physical Educa-tion, Cracow, Poland

**** MSc, Physiology and Biochemistry Unit, Institute of Human Physiology, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland

**** MSc, Doctoral Studies, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland**** PhD, Theory and Methodology of Track and Field Athletics Department, University School of Physical Education,

Cracow, Poland

Key words: thermoregulation, athletes, white blood cells, exercise in the heatSłowa kluczowe: termoregulacja, lekkoatleci, leukocyty, wysiłek w podwyższonej

temperaturze

Aim of the work. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of warm and humid conditions on changing the number of white blood cells during submaximal effort in training and non-training healthy men group.

Material and methods. The study involved 2 groups of 10 healthy men. The first group consisted of 10 medium- and long-distance runners who had similar aerobic working capacity as well as similar length of train-ing (5 ± 1.2 years). The second – control group – consisted of 10 healthy non-training men. The tests were performed on a cycloergometer with individually estimated work load of 53 ± 2% VO2max, in the test-room in which the temperature of 33 °C ± 1 °C and humidity of 70% was maintained. The effort was continued to the point when the core temperature of subjects measured per rectum increased by 1.2 °C. Before and after the test the body weight was measured as well as the core temperature of the subjects was monitored during the exercise. In the blood samples collected before and after the test the total protein level and hematological indexes were determined.

Results and conclusions. This study showed that the physical effort in warm and humid conditions results in decrease of the body mass and the plasma volume contraction in both groups. However, the work done by the athletes was found to be longer and harder compared with the control group. Intense sweating during the exercise caused a higher decrease of the plasma volume in the training group than in non-training group. The rise in the number of lymphocytes, neutrophiles and basophiles accompanied by the increase of the total white blood cells was observed in the regularly training group of men, whereas in the control group only the number of neutrophiles and eosinophiles increased significantly. The results of the study show that after effort leuco-



Wanda Pilch, Marta Szarek, Dorota Gryka-Nowaczyk, Michał Kaczmarek

– 62 –

cytosis was remarkably higher in the athletes in comparison with the non-training group. Moreover, the work done by the athletes which caused the increase in the core temperature by 1.2 °C was significantly harder.

Cel pracy. Określenie wpływu wysiłku submaksymalnego w otoczeniu o podwyższonej temperaturze i wil-gotności na ilościowe zmiany leukocytów u osób trenujących i nietrenujących.

Materiał i metody. Badaniami objęto 10 lekkoatletów uprawiających biegi długo- i średniodystansowe, posiadających podobny poziom wydolności aerobowej i podobny staż treningowy (5 ± 1,2 lat) oraz losowo za-kwalifikowanych do grupy kontrolnej mężczyzn nieuprawiających wyczynowo sportu. Badani wykonywali wysiłek na cykloergometrze z indywidualnie wyznaczonym obciążeniem 53 ± 2% VO2max w komorze termoklimatycznej w temperaturze 33 °C ± 1 °C oraz wilgotności względnej 70%. Wysiłek był kontynuowany do momentu, w któ-rym temperatura mierzona per rectum podwyższyła się o 1,2 °C. W trakcie badań oznaczano zmiany masy ciała i temperatury wewnętrznej badanych oraz we krwi pobieranej przed i po wysiłku, oznaczano białko całkowite oraz wskaźniki hematologiczne.

Wyniki i wnioski. Przeprowadzony eksperyment wykazał, że wysiłek w podwyższonej temperaturze i wilgot-ności powietrza wpłynął na obniżenie masy ciała i objętości osocza badanych osób. Lekkoatleci wykonali dłuższą i większą pracę niż osoby nietrenujące. Intensywne pocenie w czasie wysiłku spowodowało większy ubytek objętości osocza u lekkoatletów w porównaniu do osób nietrenujących. W obrazie białokrwinkowym biegaczy po wysiłku wystąpił wzrost całkowitej liczby krwinek białych, limfocytów, neutrofilów oraz bazofilów. Natomiast we krwi osób nietrenujących zaobserwowano wzrost liczby neutrofilów i eozynofilów. Znacznie większa powysiłkowa leukocytoza wystąpiła u lekkoatletów, którzy wykonali znacznie większą pracę celem podniesienia temperatury wewnętrznej o 1,2 °C w porównaniu z mężczyznami nietrenującymi.

Introduction

Physical activity in high temperatures requires the in-tensifi cation of the thermoregulatory mechanisms. Under such conditions, heat both penetrates into the body from a hot environment and is generated during an intense physical work. Excess heat must be elimi-nated from the body in order to prevent hyperthermia. Under these conditions, the most effective way of heat elimination is the binding of thermal energy during the evaporation of sweat. Undertaking physical activity in conditions of high humidity puts additional strain on the body and reduces exercise capabilities. Steam trans-fers more heat to the body in high temperature envi-ronment than dry air. High humidity hinders the body’s cooling mechanism, i.e. sweating. Consequently, body temperature rises and the load of the respiratory system and the circulatory system increases. Under conditions of high temperature and humidity, the mechanism of heat elimination through sweating becomes less effec-tive, which leads to dehydration and increase in internal body temperature. Under such conditions, the lack of fl uid intake causes the inability to continue exercise.

Physical activity in hot humid environment causes the loss of body fl uids through sweating. Sweat rate may reach 2–3 litres per hour. Water penetrates from the intercellular space to sweat, which reduces the vol-ume of plasma and circulating blood [1].

Numerous studies prove that physical activity causes changes in the immune system. The increase

in leukocyte number after physical effort is the most thoroughly studied effect [2, 3]. This phenomenon is called myogenic leukocytosis [4].

Acute and immediate leukocytosis escalates in direct proportion to intensity and duration of physical activity and in inverse proportion to the body’s fi tness level [5, 6, 7]. Neutrocytes play the main role in the increase of leukocyte number during and after physi-cal effort. Lymphocytes have less infl uence, though the number of monocytes increases, too. After approx 2 hours of restitution, the increased number of neu-trocytes does not change, and the number of lympho-cytes decreases [8].

It is assumed that the increase in leukocyte number induced by physical effort may result from leukocyte re-distribution. The increase in stroke volume and blood fl ow velocity may cause release of marginal cells (at rest, for example in the lungs, in the liver, and in the spleen) into the circulation [9].

Researchers fi nd it diffi cult to explain the infl uence of physical activity on quantitative changes in leukocyte populations and mechanisms responsible for the above mentioned changes. Research results are not unequiv-ocal, which may be connected with the complexity of the immunological system and various factors infl uenc-ing its functioning [10].

The available literature lacks the data concerning the combined infl uence of high temperature, humid-ity and effort on the size of changes of the picture of leukocytes. The majority of previous research studies

The influence of physical effort in warm conditions on changing the white blood cells number in training...

– 63 –

examined only the infl uence of physical effort on the changes of peripheral blood leukocytes.

The aim of this research was to determine the in-fl uence of sub-maximal physical effort performed in the environment of high temperature and humidity on quantitative changes of leukocytes in both athletic and untrained people.


The research group consisted of students from the University School of Physical Education (AWF): 10 long- and middle-distance runners (group /T/, trained persons) and 10 untrained males (control group, group /N/, untrained persons). Their general profi le is present-ed in Table 1. The athletic males had similar aerobic capacity (VO2max 60,53 ± 13,5 ml · kg–1 · min-1) and similar period of training (5 ± 1,2 years). Physical activ-ity of the untrained males concerned only their partici-pation in the physical education programme at the uni-versity. The untrained group represented mean levels

of aerobic capacity according to the standards of the American Heart Association (1972). Table 2 presents general characteristics of respiratory quotients in males examined.

The research project was approved by the Bioethics Committee for Clinical Research of the District Chamber of Physicians in Cracow.

Before the pivotal study, experimenters selected workloads for cycle ergometer exercise. The pivotal study was performed in a temperature-controlled chamber at 33 °C ± 1 °C and relative humidity of 70%. Participants of the research did work on a cycle egrometer. The workload of 53 ± 2%VO2max was de-termined individually for each participant. Participants continued cycling until the temperature per rectum rose by 1.2 °C (so-called “Kubica’s Test”). A rectal temperature refl ected the temperature set by the thermoregulatory centre, and the temperature rise of 1.2 °C meant that participants reached the bottom limit of the effi ciency of the thermoregulatory mecha-nisms [11].

Table 1. The general profile of trained men (group T) and non-trained men (group N)

Parameter group – T, n=10(x– ± SD)

group – N, n = 10(x– ± SD)

Age (years) 21,6 ± 0,52 21,7 ± 0,48

Body height (cm) 179 ± 7,0 176,4 ± 5,44

Body mass (kg) 67,7 ± 5,19# 73,43 ± 6,98

BMI (kg/m2) 21,16 ± 1,16 23,55 ± 1,92

The content of fat in the body (%) 7,06 ± 1,54# 10,22 ± 2,23

Data are mean ± standard deviation.

Table 2. The general characteristics of respiratory quotients in males examined

ParameterTrained (T) Non-trained (N)

N = 10 N = 10

VO2 max (ml · kg –1.min -1) x– ± SD 60,53 ± 13,51# 44,46 ± 8,98

VO2max (l · min –1) x– ± SD 4,07 ± 0,84 3,27 ± 0,54

VE

(l · min –1) x– ± SD 147,30 ± 36,44# 117,80 ± 15,82


# Difference between the T/N group; p < 0,05


– 64 –

Participants’ body mass (BM) was measured before and after cycling on a cycle ergometer. A rectal tem-perature (Tre) was monitored at fi ve-minute intervals that were examined during cycling in a temperature--controlled chamber.

Blood was sampled from the median cubital vein before and three minutes after the research. There were two test tubes: with lithium heparin and with EDTA. The blood cell count was performed in the whole blood sample with EDTA. Experimenters ob-tained data concerning the total number of white blood cells and their division into populations: neutrocytes, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophiles, and baso-philes. The heparinised blood samples were subjected to centrifugation at 3500 r/min (1200g) for 10 min. In the obtained haemolysis-free plasma samples, experi-menters determined the concentration of total protein. The blood cell count was performed on the Sysmex XE – 2100 Analyzer.

All lab tests of haematological and biochemi-cal indices were performed in the Institute of Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Diagnostics at the Jagiellonian University, Collegium Medicum.

Changes in plasma volume (ΔPV) were calculated from total protein value. Total protein was determined before and after experiments by the use of the follow-ing formula:

ΔPV = –100 × [(Bk – Bp)/(Bk)]

Bk – fi nal protein determined after the researchBp – initial protein determined before the research ΔPV – changes in plasma volume [12].

Because of dynamic changes in plasma volume occurring during physical effort in high temperature, haematological indices determined after physical work were corrected by encompassing changes in plasma volume. In order to calculate values corrected, the Kreamer-Brown formula was used:

Wsk = (%ΔPV × 0,01 × Wpo) + Wpo

Wsk – corrected valueWpo – value after physical effort [4].

For the purpose of answering the research ques-tion, the obtained results were developed with the use of methods of descriptive statistics. Basic numerical characteristics of the examined variables, i.e. arithmetic mean and standard deviation were determined.

In order to compare value changes of indices before and after the research, the Student’s t-test for depen-dent samples was used. In order to show differences between trained and untrained group, the Student’s t-test for independent samples was used.

Research results

In order to assess exercise capacity of the thermoregu-latory mechanisms in the group of examined males, the Kubica’s test was performed. During the experiment, the group of athletic persons showed lengthened mean time of physical work performance in a temperature-controlled chamber in comparison with the group of untrained persons. Similarly, mean work performed by runners was signifi cantly higher than in untrained men. Table 3 presents mean duration time of the Kubica’s test and mean work quantity performed by trained and untrained participants.

Physical effort in high temperature (the Kubica’s test) caused dehydration and weight loss in partici-pants. Runners showed higher weight loss than the group of untrained men (Table 4).

After the Kubica’s test, in both groups reduction in plasma volume (Δ% PV) was observed. Athletes showed higher mean loss of plasma volume than un-trained men. This change was not signifi cant statisti-cally. Figure 1 presents the above mentioned data con-cerning changes in plasma volume after the Kubica’s test in athletes and untrained men.

Table 3. The mean time duration of the Kubica’s test and mean work quantity performed by trained and non-trained participants

Group Trained (T) Non-trained (N)

Parameter x– ± SD x– ± SD

The mean time duration of the Kubica’s test [min] 30,7* 8,9 25,1 9,1

The mean work quantity [kJ] 268,7* 13,03 166,9 51,2

# Difference between the T/N group; p < 0,05


– 65 –

Table 5 presents data concerning quantitative changes of the total number of leukocytes (WBC) and their particular populations (NEUT, LYMPH, MONO, EOS, BASO) before and after the Kubica’s test in ath-letes and untrained participants.

Physical effort in the environment of high tempera-ture and humidity caused changes in the total number of white blood cells both in athletes and untrained men. The number of leukocytes increased signifi cantly in runners. In untrained participants this increase was not signifi cant statistically.

Both groups demonstrated a statistically signifi cant increase of neutrocyte population in blood. Mean rise of neutrocytes number in runners was higher than in untrained persons.

Changes in the number of lymphocytes after ex--amination look slightly different. In middle-distance runners, the increase of lymphocyte population was statistically signifi cant. In untrained men the number of lymphocytes decreased. However, this decrease was not statistically signifi cant.

Physical activity performed in high temperature and humidity did not cause quantitative changes in monocyte population in untrained men. In athletes, the number of monocytes increased slightly. However, this increase was not statistically signifi cant.

Statistically signifi cant changes were observed in population of eosinophils in both groups after the Kubica’s test. In the group of trained men, there was an increase of eosinophils. A slight decrease in the number of eosinophils was observed in untrained participants.

No changes were observed in the number of baso-philes in untrained men after the test, whereas a slight increase of the number of basophiles was detected in athletes.

The comparison between the lymphocyte and neu-trocyte proportion after the Kubica’s test revealed the ratio change of these cells in untrained participants. The number of lymphocytes decreased, and the num-ber of neutrocyte increased. These changes were not statistically signifi cant.

Discussion

The research results concerning the changes in plasma volume indicate that dehydration caused by the physi-cal effort in high temperature is depended on the level of fi tness. Dehydration manifested itself as plasma vol-ume reduction and weight loss after physical activity. The group of untrained men showed smaller plasma volume and smaller weight loss than the group of ath-letic participants. Higher weight loss and greater reduc-tion of plasma volume in athletes could result from their higher body water percentage. Many authors prove that regular physical activity leads to the increase in plasma volume and the expansion of muscle and skin capillaries [13, 14]. Long-term endurance training may also infl uence the growth rate of body temperature. It was showed that in the group of athletes the body tem-perature rises slowly because their bodies initiate the thermoregulatory mechanisms in the early stages of exercising. In athletic people, heat loss through sweat

Table 4. Changes in body mass observed in trained (T) and non-trained (N) group after Kubica’s test

Trained (T), n = 10 Non-trained (N), n = 10

Before After ∆ Before After ∆

BM (kg)x– ± SD 67,78 ± 5,35 66,98 ± 5,36* (–) 0,8 ± 0,16 72,51 ± 8,56 71,99 ± 8,46* (–) 0,52 ± 0,15

%BM (–) 1,2% (–) 0,72%

Data are mean ± standard deviation.# Difference between the T/N group; p < 0,05

Figure 1. Changes in plasma volume after the Kubica’s test in trained (T) and non-trained (N) men

Trained (T) Non-trained (N)

Δ% PVx– –10,5 –8

±SD 3,2 1,7



– 66 –

Tabl

e 5.

Qua

ntita

tive

chan

ges

of th

e to

tal n

umbe

r of l

euko

cyte

s (W

BC) a

nd th

eir p

artic

ular

pop

ulat

ions

(NEU

T, LY

MPH

, MON

O, E

OS, B

ASO)

bef

ore

(A) a

nd a

fter (

B) th

e Ku

bica

’s te

st in

trai

ned

(T) a

nd

non-

train

ed p

artic

ipan

ts (N

) Leuk

ocyt

es (W

BC) [

103 /µ

l]N

eutr

ophi

les

(NEU

T) [1

03 /µl]

Lym

phoc

ytes

(LYM

PH) [

103 /µ

l]

(T)

(N)

(T)

(N)

(T)

(N)

AB

∆A

B∆

AB

∆A

B∆

AB

∆A

B∆

x–4,

76,

14*#

1,44

5,08

5,53

0,45

2,68

3,52

*0,

842,

613,

23*

0,62

1,47

1,97

*#0,

51,

821,

69-0

,13

±SD

0,93

1,09

0,83

0,98

1,32

0,64

0,66

0,71

0,48

0,69

0,82

0,41

0,2

0,4

0,38

0,38

0,63

0,45

* Di

ffere

nce

from

val

ues

befo

re th

e ef

fort;

p <

0,0

5

# D

iffer

ence

from

the

N g

roup

; p <

0,0

5

Mon

ocyt

es (M

ONO)

[103 /µ

l]Eo

sino

phils

(EOS

) [10

3 /µl]

Baso

phile

s (B

ASO

) [10

3 /µl]

(T)

(N)

(T)

(N)

(T)

(N)

AB

∆A

B∆

AB

∆A

B∆

AB

∆A

B∆

x–0,

360,

430,

070,

460,

460

0,17

0,20

*#0,

020,

180,

14*#

–0,0

40,

020,

03*#

0,01

0,02

0,02

0

±SD

0,11

0,08

0,1

0,13

0,13

0,07

0,11

0,13

0,08

0,08

0,07

0,04

0,01

0,02

0,01

0,01

0,01

0,01

* Di

ffere

nce

from

val

ues

befo

re th

e ef

fort;

p <

0,0

5

# D

iffer

ence

from

the

N g

roup

; p <

0,0

5


– 67 –

production and its evaporation starts earlier and is more intense [13, 14]. Probably due to this mechanism athletes in the research performed longer and more in-tense work than untrained participants.

In the experiment conducted, experimenters ana-lyzed the infl uence of physical effort in high temperature and humidity on the character of changes in the leu-kocytic system. Physical effort performed under such conditions had a signifi cant infl uence on the increase of the total number of leukocytes in athletes, whereas in untrained persons a general number of white blood cells did not change signifi cantly despite their similar physical effort. In middle-distance runners, experi-menters detected a statistically signifi cant increase in the number of lymphocytes. In untrained persons, the number of lymphocytes decreased but this decrease was not signifi cant statistically. In the group of untrained men, the ratio of neutrocytes to lymphocytes changed. Neutrocytes increased at the expense of lymphocytes and general number of leukocytes did not change. It means that in untrained people the body reacted by in-creasing only the number of neutrocytes, whereas in trained people the body responded by increasing the number of lymphocytes, too.

In similar experiment performed by Kostrzewa and Wiktorowicz, the experimenters analyzed the changes in the population of peripheral blood lymphocytes un-der the infl uence of physical effort in healthy men. The research conducted by the above mentioned authors showed exercise-induced myogenic leukocytosis char-acterized by neutrocyte number increase [15].

Duda et al. conducted studies concerning the infl u-ence of a gradual physical effort performed on a cycle ergometer on fatigue. The research showed the in-crease in the number of leukocytes, lymphocytes, and thrombocytes in blood. The increased number of neu-trocytes lasted after two hours of rest [8].

Similar results were obtained by Hubner-Woźniak et al. They showed an exercise-induced drop of lym-phocyte number in blood by putting untrained people through sub-maximal physical effort [16].

Leukocytosis after intense physical exercise was presented by Pedersen, too. He detected that prolonged intense physical activity led to an increase in neutrocyte number and decrease in lymphocyte number below the initial value. Lymphocyte population decrease depen-ded on intensity and duration of exercises [17, 18].

It is hard to say whether exercise-induced quantita-tive changes of white blood cells and their particular

populations have physiological signifi cance and wheth-er such changes may infl uence the immunological sys-tem. Studies showed that among young people, medium intensity training (3–5 times a week, for 50–60 minutes, 40–60% VO2max) does not lead to signifi cant changes in the immunological mechanisms [19]. On the other hand, changes in the immunological mechanisms were observed in people performing high intensity training. Increased incidence rate was observed among athletes in the in-season period, which resulted from exhausting training loads. The most frequently reported infections concern the upper respiratory system [20, 2, 3, 19, 8]. According to Słowiańska-Lisowska et al. and Weight [6, 21], after many weeks of overloading, the antibody level drops in athletes, which may lead to an increased sus-ceptibility to bacterial and viral infections. Similar con-clusions concerning the infl uence of physical activity on the immunological system were presented by Wit. She showed that people taking part in competitive sports may suffer from reduced immunity [20].

Literature provides numerous evidences indicat-ing that physical activity exerts signifi cant infl uence on the functioning of immunological system (stimulating or hindering infl uence). However, it is hard to explain the role of exercise-induced short-term reversible changes of leukocyte number and their populations. There is no doubt that this issue requires further research, es-pecially concerning physical activity performed under variable environmental conditions.

Conclusions

The following conclusions were drawn on the basis of the research:1. Compared to the group of untrained people, the

time of work on a cycle ergometer was signifi cant-ly longer in athletes. It was observed that trained people require more time to rise their rectal tem-perature by 1.2 °C, which may suggest better ef-fi ciency of thermoregulatory mechanisms in this research group.

2. Plasma volume loss was bigger in trained persons than in untrained ones, which may suggest that athletes’ body eliminated excess heat in a more ef-fi cient way.

3. In the group of athletes, there was an increase in the general number of white blood cells. On the other hand, in the group of untrained participants, general number of leukocytes did not change despite the fact that they performed physical effort of a similar


– 68 –

load. It can be assumed that redistribution of ex-isting cells was infl uenced by a regular long-term training. It is possible that in the group of untrained men this mechanism was not as developed as in athletes and its development would require regular stimulation of their bodies.

4. In the group of untrained people, physical effort in high temperature caused an increase in neutrocytes only. On the other hand, in the group of athletic people, the number of lymphocytes increased, too. The level of fi tness in athletes could be a signifi cant factor in this case.


[1] Gleeson M, Greenhaff PL: Dehydratation, rehydratation and exercise in the heat. Insider, 1996; 4: 2.

[2] Kuchar E: Wpływ wysiłku fi zycznego na układ odporno-ściowy – próba wprowadzenia do zagadnienia. Med Sport, 1998; 9: 1–3.

[3] Monkiewicz M, Kuliczkowski K: Wpływ różnych wysiłków fi zycznych na homeostazę immunologiczną sportowca. Sport Wyczyn, 1998; 9–10: 56–63.

[4] Kraemer WJ, Patton JF, Knultgen HG, Marchitelli LJ, Cruthirds C, Damokosh A, Harman E, Frykman P, Dziados JE: Hypothalomic-pituitary responses to short-duration high-intensity cycle exercise. J Appl Physiol, 1989; 66: 161–166.

[5] Gabriel H., Kinderman W: The acute immune response to exercise: what does it mean?. Int J Sports Med, 1997; 18: 28–45.

[6] Weihgt L: Exercise and the immune system : a review. S Afr J Sports Med, 1997; 3 (1): 4–8.

[7] Suzuki K, Yamada M, Kurakake S, Okamura N, Yamaya K, Liu O, Kudoh S, Kowatari K, Nakaji S, Sugawara K: Circu-lating cytokines and hormone with immunosupresive but neutrophil-priming potentials rise after endurance exercise in humans. Eur J Appl Physiol, 2000; 81: 281–287.

[8] Duda K, Majerczak J, Żołądź J A, Duda J P, Kołodziejski L, Rychlik U, Klupa J: Wpływ jednorazowego intensywnego wysiłku fi zycznego, wykonanego przed i po upuście krwi, na poziom wybranych wskaźników hematologicznych u młodych, zdrowych mężczyzn. Przegl Lek, 2005; 62 (7): 661–666.

[9] Shepard RJ, Hind S, Shek PN: Exercise and immune system. Sports Med, 1994; 18: 340–369.

[10] Nieman DC: Immune response to heavy exertio. J Appl Physiol, 1997; 82: 1385–1394.

[11] Kubica R: Podstawy fi zjologii pracy i wydolności fi zycznej. Wydawnictwo Skryptowe nr 24, Kraków, AWF, 1995.

[12] Harrison MH, Gravney MJ, Cochrane LA: Some sources of error in the calculation of relative change in plasma volume. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol, 1982; 50: 13–211.

[13] Shvwrtz E, Magazanik A, Glick Z: Thermal responses during training in a temperate climate. J Appl Physiol, 1974; 36: 572–577.

[14] Cheuvront SN, Carter R, Sawka MN: Fluid balance and endurance exercise performance. Curr Sports Med Rep, 2003; 2 (4): 202–208.

[15] Kostrzewa A, Wiktorowicz K. Wpływ wysiłku fi zycznego na skład populacji limfocytów krwi obwodowej zdrowych dawców. Alergia Astma Immun, 1996; 1 (2): 104.

[16] Hubner-Woźniak E, Lutosławska G, Tkaczyk J, Kęska A, Kłossowski M, Martyn A, Wit B: Wpływ wysiłku submaksy-malnego na zachowanie się leukocytów we krwi u kobiet i mężczyzn. Wych Fiz i Sport, 2001; 2: 191–201.

[17] Pedersen BK, Bruunsgaard H, Klokker M, Kappel M, Maclean DA, Nielsen HB, Rhode T, Ullum H, Zacho M: Exercise-induced immunomodulation – possible roles of neuroendocrine and metabolic factors. Int J Sports Med, 1997; 18: 2–7.

[18] Nieman DC, Pedersen BK: Exercise and immune function. Sports Med, 1999; 27: 73–80.

[19] Eberhardt A: Postępy w immunologii wysiłku fi zycznego. Med Sport, 1998; 9: 4–5.

[20] Wit B: Wpływ różnych form wysiłku fi zycznego na wybrane parametry układu immunologicznego człowieka. Wybrane fragmenty. Med Sport, 1997; 10: 3–8.

[21] Słowińska-Lisowska M, Majda J: Stężenie immunoglobulin i kortyzolu w surowicy w cyklu treningowym u lekkoatle-tów. Wychow Fiz Sport, 2001; 1: 29–33.

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THE PHYSIOLOGICAL COST OF WALKING IN OVERFAT GIRLS

KOSZT FIZJOLOGICZNY WYSIŁKÓW MARSZOWYCH U DZIEWCZĄT O NADMIERNYM STOPNIU

OTŁUSZCZENIA CIAŁA

Jadwiga Szymura*, Marcin Maciejczyk**, Joanna Gradek***, Magdalena Więcek**, Jerzy Cempla****, Marek Bawelski**

**** PhD, Department of Clinical Rehabilitation, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland**** PhD, Institute of Human Physiology, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland **** PhD, Department of Theory and Methodology Athletics, University School of Physical Education, Cracow,

Poland**** Prof. dr. habil., Institute of Human Physiology, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland

Key words: physiological cost, walking, obesity, girls, oxygen intakeSłowa kluczowe: koszt fizjologiczny, marsz, otyłość, dziewczęta, pobór tlenu

Aim of the work. Determination of physiological cost of locomotion effort – treadmill walking at various speeds in girls with excessive body fat (%) aged about 10 years.

Material and methods. The study covered 40 girls: 20 with excessive body fat (33.2 ± 5.6%F) and 20 with normal level (14.5 ± 4.9%F). They walked on a treadmill at two speeds (3.6 km · h–1, 4.8 km · h–1).

Results. Total VO2 (l · min–1) was by 22% and 26% (p < 0.05) greater in girls with excessive body fat than among girls with average level. Girls in the study group achieved lower values of VO2 · kg–1 13% and 10%. VO2 values expressing the relative load on the body compared to maxima of this parameter were by 10% higher in the study group than in the control during slow walk and ca. 14% (p < 0.05) higher during faster walk. At both marching speeds the study group exhibited significantly higher values of VE. No significant differences in HR were noted.

Conclusions. Higher values of VO2, %VO2max, %VEmax and %HRmax during locomotion effort of overfat girls at the same intensity of test exertion indicate higher cost of physical exercise incurred by overfat girls.

Cel pracy. Określenie kosztu fizjologicznego wysiłków lokomocyjnych w formie marszu o różnej intensywności u dziewcząt o nadmiernym stopniu otłuszczenia ciała.

Materiał i metody. Badaniami objęto grupę 40 dziewcząt w wieku około 10 lat: 20 dziewcząt o nadmiernym stopniu otłuszczenia ciała (33,2 ± 5,6%F) i 20 o przeciętnym stopniu otłuszczenia ciała (14,5 ± 4,9%F). Badane dziewczęta wykonywały na bieżni mechanicznej dwa wysiłki marszowe o różnej intensywności (3,6 km · h–1 i 4,8 km · h–1).

Wyniki. Wielkości globalne VO2 kształtowały się u dziewcząt nadmiernie otłuszczonych przeciętnie na poziomie o 22% i 26% (p < 0,05) wyższym od notowanego w tych samych pod względem prędkości lokomocyjnej wysił-kach u dziewcząt przeciętnie otłuszczonych. Dziewczęta w grupie badanej uzyskiwały natomiast niższe wielkości VO2 · kg–1 w analizowanych wysiłkach (13% i 10%). Stanowiące wykładnik obciążenia względnego organizmu wielkości VO2 odniesione do poziomu maksymalnego tego parametru, w grupie badanej były wyższe w stosunku do obserwowanych w grupie kontrolnej o około 10% podczas wolniejszego oraz o około 14% (p < 0,05) podczas szybszego marszu. Podczas obu wysiłków marszowych w grupie badanej notowano znacząco wyższe wartości wentylacji minutowej płuc. Nie zanotowano istotnych różnic w wielkościach HR.



Jadwiga Szymura, Marcin Maciejczyk, Joanna Gradek, Magdalena Więcek, Jerzy Cempla, Marek Bawelski

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Wnioski. Odnotowany podczas wysiłków lokomocyjnych u dziewcząt o nadmiernym stopniu otłuszczenia ciała wyższy poziom VO2, jak również wyższe wartości %VO2max %VEmax i %HRmax przy tych samych inten-sywnościach wysiłków testowych wskazują na wyższy koszt pracy fizycznej u dziewcząt o nadmiernym stopniu otłuszczenia ciała.

Introduction

The common occurrence of overweight and obesity is becoming a complex problem with important social and psychological implications, affl icting virtually each age range and every social or economic group. The domains of interest to specialists in different areas fo-cus on searching for most effi cient treatment methods and preventing obesity in both individual aspect and in relation to the whole population. In consideration of a variety of factors which might affect obesity, this presents a considerable challenge. Treating and pre-venting obesity seems to be of signifi cant importance in relation to overweight children, who often experience, even before entering adulthood, a number of disorders which accompany obesity such as diabetes, arterial hypertension and, in the light of many studies, they are prone to high risk of diabetes-related disorders in early adulthood [1, 2, 3]. Huge impact on more frequent occurrence of obesity, in addition to improper diets, is attributed to continuously decreasing percentage of physical activity. This fact is particularly widespread in developed countries, where modern technologies and solutions for public transportation and growing urbanization have dramatically limited level of human physical activity, thus contributing to the rise in aver-age body weight [4, 5]. Obese children are typically less physically active and less willing to take up any physical activity than their slim peers [6, 7]. Another alarming fact is that, as they are growing, obese children limit the time spent doing physical activity as compared to slim counterparts [8, 9, 10]. The results of investigations by Treuth et al. [9] revealed that higher level of adipose tis-sue signifi cantly relates to higher amount of time spent inactively, whereas its lower level corresponds to higher daily extent of physical activity with moderate intensity. Therefore, it seems to be legitimate for many obesity treatment programs to recommend reduction of seden-tary lifestyle in favour of increased share of physical activity, which, in relation to developmental age, plays an important role in stimulation of both physical and mental development of children. Forms of exercise recommended for obese people include physical ac-tivity of different intensity such as walking, marching, cross-country runs or jogging [11, 12]. This form of

physical activity is recommended not only as a slim-ming therapy but also as an element of a widely under-stood systematic and long-term prevention of obesity. This can be explained by the fact that they are natural form of locomotion, easy to be perform, readily avail-able, cheap and possible to be done under any condi-tions. Therefore, it appears that they are best forms of physical activity to be recommended to obese people and can contribute not only to reduction of body mass but also, due to its nature, to improvement of physical fi tness among young people. However, when planning intensity and duration of locomotion effort, therapists, doctors or physical education teachers should take it into consideration that during realization of this form of movement obese children are exposed to additional load caused by carrying of excessive body mass, which is undoubtedly connected with greater load to the body as compared to non-overweight children. Furthermore, levels of physical fi tness and endurance in obese chil-dren are often lower, thus increased effort might lead to faster rate of fatigue accumulation as compared to their slim peers [13, 14, 15, 16, 17]. This study aims at determination of dynamics of changes and the level of fundamental parameters of respiratory and circulatory system and evaluation of physiological cost of walking effort with different intensity in girls with excessive level of fat percentage against the background of slim girls.


Characteristics of objects

The study covered 40 girls aged 10 years (20 girls with excessive and 20 girls with average body fat percen-tage). Chronological age and body height did not cause differentiation in the compared groups. Average values in remaining analysed somatic parameters were signifi -cantly greater than in girls with higher body fat percen-tage (Tab. 1).

Procedure of object selection

A group of 40 persons was selected in initial part of the investigations which comprised 449 girls from second and third grade randomly chosen from primary schools.

The physiological cost of walking in overfat girls

– 71 –

This part of the investigations was conducted in school facilities. They encompassed measurement of funda-mental somatic parameters. Selection of groups was purposeful. Somatic differentiation among children was taken into consideration, focused on the share of adipose tissue in overall bodyweight. In order to select, from the studied sample, girls with abnormal fraction of body fat, a method based on evaluation of percentage of body adipose tissue in overall body-weight, using bioelectric-impedance analysis (%FBIA) was employed. Eligibility criteria for inclusion in the group was the value over the total of mean value (x–) and standard deviation (SD) for this factor through-out the studied sample of the population. The control group included girls with average body fat percentage (%FBIA < x– + SD and %FBIA > x– – SD).

Procedure

Participation in the study was on voluntary basis. A precondition to participate in cardiac stress testing was an informed consent obtained from parents or le-gal guardians and positive opinion of paediatricians on health status and lack of contraindication to exertion of higher intensities. Non-training persons were included in the study. The investigations were conducted under laboratory conditions in the morning, two hours after typical meal and with prior medical check-up. The project obtained positive approval of the Bioethical Commission at the Regional Medical Chamber in Krakow (No. 9KBL/OIL/2002) and Education Welfare Service in Krakow.

Somatic parameters, body composition

Several somatic parameters measurements were taken to allow for characterization of body size, proportions and the share of passive and active components in overall bodyweight. The measured parameters includ-ed body height (BH) (by means of Martin anthropom-eter), body mass (BM) and fat mass (FM), fat free mass (FFM) and share of adipose tissue in overall bodyweight measured by means of bioelectric impedance analysis (%FBIA)(Body Composition Analyser TBF-300, TANITA®, Japan).

Cardiac stress testing

The studied group of children performed two 6-min-ute locomotion effort tests at different walking speed, similar to the speed of moving typical of this age (3.6 km · h–1; second trial: 4.8 km · h–1). The tests were separated with 4-minute rest period. Detailed analy-ses focused on the level and profi le of changes in the selected parameters of respiratory system and heart rates. Registration of physiological parameters was made based on analysis of expired gas, using Medikro 919 Ergospirometr (Medikro Oy, Finland) apparatus. Rest and exercise-related values were registered for the following parameters: minute ventilation (VE), re-spiratory rate (fR), tidal volume (VT), minute oxygen in-take (VO2), minute carbon dioxide production (VCO2), relative minute oxygen intake (VO2 · kg–1), respiratory quotient (RQ), oxygen/carbon dioxide concentration in expired gas (FEO2, FECO2), ventilation equivalence

Table 1. The subject’s anthropological characteristics

Parameter group group N x–O/x–

N [%] dO–N

N = 20 N = 20

Age [years] 9.9 ± 0.6 10.2 ± 0.6 97.3 –0.3

BH [cm] 143.1 ± 5.8 140.0 ± 5.7 102.2 3.1

BM [kg] 45.3 ± 7.5 31.4 ± 3.7 144.6 14.0*

FFM [kg] 30.4 ± 3.6 26.7 ± 2.5 114.0 3.8*

F [%] 33.2 ± 5.6 14.5 ± 4.9 221.9 18.7*

BMI 21.7 ± 2.5 15.9 ± 1.6 136.6 5.8*

*p < 0.05


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of oxygen/carbon dioxide (VE · VO2–1, VE · VCO2

–1). Heart rate (HR) was registered using POLAR® ACCUREX PLUS monitor (Polar Elektro, Finland).

Statistical analysis

Calculations were made using Statsoft® STA TI STICA 6.0 software package. Basic characteristics for descriptive statistics were obtained. Signifi cance of intergroup dif-ferences in terms of somatic parameters and the level of physiological parameters during periods of relative functional equilibrium was evaluated by means of the Student’s t-test for independent samples. During the testing, the equality of variances (the Brown-Forsyth test) and distribution normality (the Shapiro-Wilk test) were checked. In order to compare the results of girls with excessive body fat to those with average body fat percentage in terms of the analysed parameters, a percentage index was employed to express mean scores for the studied group in relation to the control group scores, adopted as 100%. Assessment of the ef-fect of body fat percent and intensity of exercise on the level of the determined parameters was made using the method of bivariate/multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA/MANOVA).

Results

Dynamics of changes in parameters of respiratory and circulatory system during walking exercise was parallel in all groups, however, the highest level was observed in girls with excessive body fat percent (Fig. 1–5). This indicates higher values of physiological cost of walking exercise. The intergroup differences in physiological parameters observed during slower walk were deep-ened with the rise in the set speed in second walking test.

Both in walking effort with lower and higher intensi-ty, statistically signifi cant differences in terms of oxygen intake (Fig. 1–3) were observed between the compared groups.

Global values for this parameter maintained in over-weight girls at the mean level of 0.56 l · min–1 during fi rst and 0.67 l · min–1 during second walk, which means scores higher than recorded for average girls with near-ly 22% and 26%. Deepening of intergroup differences in minute oxygen intake, resulting from the growth in ef-fort intensity was statistically signifi cant (p < 0.05). The values registered for control group were 0.46 l · min–1 and 0.53 l · min–1 respectively. It should be noted that absolute values of oxygen intake observed in girls with

Figure 1. Dynamics of changes of total values of VO2 in overfat girls (group O) and control group (N) during walking at different veloci-ties and restitution

Group O Group N0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

t [min]

0,0

0,1

0,2

0,3

0,4

0,5

0,6

0,7

0,8

VO

2 [l. m

in-1

]


– 73 –

excessive body fat percentage in fi rst test exceeded the values of this parameter recorded in the control group during second walking exercise.

Comparison of oxygen intake to body mass and fat free mass in the examined girls reduced existing inter-group differences. The girls from the examined group

showed, in both exercise tests, lower relative values of minute oxygen uptake in relation to body mass. The re-sult for girls from the examined group comprised 87% of the results in the control group during fi rst and 89% in second test. These differences turned out to be sig-nifi cant only in the case of slower walk.

Figure 2. Dynamics of changes of relative to BM values of VO2 in overfat girls (group O) and control group (N) during walking at dif-ferent velocities and restitution

Group O Group N0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

t [min]

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

VO

2B

M-1

[m

lkg-1

min

-1]

Figure 3. Dynamics of changes of relative to FFM values of VO2 in overfat girls (group O) and control group (N) during walking at dif-ferent velocities and restitution

Group O Group N0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

t [min]

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

VO

2FF

M-1

[m

lkg

-1m

in-1

]


– 74 –

In fi nal phase of test exercises, values of minute oxy-gen intake in relation to fat-free body mass were higher by nearly 9% and 12% in the study group. Intergroup differences for walking at the speed of 3.6 km · h–1 was, on the average, 1.5 ml · kg · min–1 and was not statistical-ly signifi cant. During walk at the speed of 4.8 km · h–1, the range of differences between the compared groups deepened up to 2.4 ml · kg (p < 0.05).

During both walking tests considerably higher val-ues of respiratory minute volume (Fig. 4) were recorded for girls with excessive level of body fat. Intergroup dif-ference expressed in percentage amounted to 19% during fi rst walking and it signifi cantly deteriorated (up to 28%) during second test.

During relative functional equilibrium period of slow-er walk, average respiratory minute volume amounted to 17.6 l · min–1 in the studied group and 14.8 l · min–1 in the control group (during fast walk this value was 20.9 l · min–1 and 16.4 l · min–1 respectively). Relationship between walking speed and intergroup differences for this parameter was statistically signifi cant (p < 0.05).

Heart rate did not considerably differentiate the compared groups (Fig. 5).

Table 2 presents comparison of selected physi-ological parameters recorded in fi nal minutes of walk-ing tests in relation to maximal values achieved during graded exercise test. The girls with excessive percent-age of adipose tissue walked at higher percentage values of VO2max, VEmax, and HRmax, which proves higher cost of physical exercise.

The values of VO2 recorded during exercise, related to the maximal level of this parameter, constitute an index of relative load to the body and provide informa-tion about actual physiological load to the body. Values of %VO2max in the studied group were by 10% higher in relation to those observed in the control group during slower walk and by 14% (p < 0.05) during faster walk (Tab. 2).

The studied group achieved, on the average, during fi rst test the same percentage of maximal pulmonary ventilation as the control group during fast walk. The intergroup difference deepened for higher values of walking speed up to statistically signifi cant value (from 12% to nearly 21%).

Percentage values for maximal heart rate regis-tered in fi nal minutes of test exercise also differed con-

Figure 4. Dynamics of changes in maximal heart rate in overfat girls (group O) and control group (N) during walking at different veloci-ties and restitution

Group O Group N0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

t [min]

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

VE [1

. min

-1]


– 75 –

siderably from both walks. It is remarkable that mean percentage of HRmax reached by overweight girls during walk at the speed of 3.6 km · h–1 (62.7%) was greater than mean value recorded in the control group (61.5%) during walk at the speed of 4.8 km · h–1.

Discussion

The study on overweight and obese people conducted on treadmills must take into consideration the aspect of carrying excess body mass by people with higher level

Figure 5. Dynamics of changes VE in overfat girls (group O) and control group (N) during walking at different velocities and restitu-tion

Group O Group N0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

t [min]

80

90

100

110

120

130H

R [1

. min

-1]

Table 2. The amount of chosen physiological parameters noted during walking at different velocities expressed as percentage of maximal values in overfat girls

Parameter group O group N x–O/x–

N [%] dO–N

speed 3.6 km · h–1

%VO2max · BM–1 35.8±5.6 32.4±4.9 110.5 3.4

%VEmax 27.8±5.1 24.8±5.1 112.4 3.1

% HRmax 62.8±4.3 58.8±4.9 106.7 3.9*

speed 4.8 km · h–1

%VO2max · BM–1 43.1±6.9 37.7±6.5 114.4 5.4*

%VEmax 33.3±6.3 27.5±5.5 120.8 5.7*

% HRmax 65.5±4.6 61.6±4.7 106.4 3.9*

*p<0.05


– 76 –

of adipose tissue. When carrying excess body mass, obese children must make greater efforts to achieve the same level of physical activity as their slim peers. This might contribute to limitation of exercise abilities of these people, which might be indicated by the higher level of physiological parameters in overweight and obese chil-dren at these types of exercise [18, 14, 19]. Dynamics of the analysed physiological parameters was similar in both compared groups, however, girls with excess body fat performed the assigned exercises with signifi cantly higher level of physiological parameters and higher per-centage values of their maximal level as compared to the control group. Study by Maffeis et al. [13] reports that a part of the studied children discontinued test exercises before the assigned task time elapsed. With the rise in speed of locomotion effort, the number of children who discontinued walk (or run) before the set test time limit grew faster in the group of obese children as compared to the control group [13]. Obese children reach the level of VO2max during walking/running tests at the speeds lower than slim children [20]. This results from much higher level of physiological response dur-ing running or walking effort with high intensity in obese children, who discontinued running tests much sooner as a consequence of growing fatigue at lower effort in-tensities.

Excessive body mass adds additional load and therefore, in order to maintain a particular locomotion speed it is necessary to use more energy. The author’s study shows that locomotion effort comparable in terms of speed demands of girls with excess body fat much higher relative load than of girls with average amount of fat. Higher values of minute oxygen intake expressed in overall and relative values (in relation to fat-free body mass) in the study group point to higher physiological cost of this effort. Different results relating to walking and running effort were obtained by Maffeis et al. [13]. Although they observed, similarly to the author’s inves-tigations, higher global energy cost in obese children comparing to the control group for each set walking speed (2–7 km · h– 1) and running speed (7–11 km · h–1), it is remarkable that during the walk at the speed of 5 km · h–1 this difference amounted to 50% and was deepening with the rise in walking speed. Energy cost was comparable in the studied groups when presented in relation to slim body mass. This was not confi rmed by the author’s investigations, in which both absolute and relative values (related to FFM) of physiological pa-rameters and percentage values of their maximal level in fi nal minutes of locomotion effort were higher in the

group of girls with excess adipose tissue concentration. The results of the investigations presented by Maffeis et al. [20] indicated that physiological cost of exercise at the speed of 7 km.h–1 (both in obese and slim chil-dren) is higher in the case of running rather than walk-ing as a form of effort. Similar relationships were also observed by other researchers in relation to adults [21, 22]. This results from the fact that the relationship be-tween oxygen intake and effort intensity is similar in its nature to linear dependency only for running whereas during walking exercise this relationship is rather a cur-vilinear one [23].

Maffeis et al. [20] recommend walking at the speed of 4 km · h–1 as a measure to treat obesity in children. According to the results of investigations carried out by this team, it is walking at the very speed that contributes to higher consumption of fat as an energy substrate than in the case of strenuous exercise. These schol-ars argued that faster walking speeds are not easy for obese children and they are not willing to continue this type of effort for longer time. These views seem to be legitimate since it is commonly known that moderate exercise intensity contributes to increased consumption of fat acids in working muscles while rise in intensity of effort causes that fat consumption decreases and carbohydrates are becoming main energy substrate. Moreover, loading overweight and obese children with too strenuous exercise might discourage them to take up any physical activity. This is of particular importance in relation to effort such as walking or running when these children are exposed to additional load in the form of excess body mass, which causes higher rela-tive load to the body, expressed as a higher percentage of VO2max.

Results of investigations of physiological cost of walking and running exercise in boys and girls present-ed by Maffeis et al. [13] indicate that exercise-induced physiological adaptations during performance of loco-motion effort are similar in both boys and girls. The au-thors achieved similar results (higher physiological cost of exercise in obese children) through separate analysis of the group of boys and girls and analysis without con-sideration of genders. However, considerably higher level of physiological parameters during all test exer-cises was recorded in both obese girls and those with average body fat concentration in comparison to groups of boys. Dissimilar results were recorded by Szymura et al. [24]. Their investigations show that boys reached higher values than girls for most of the analysed physi-ological parameters. Therefore, it appears that during


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selection of intensity of walking and running effort for children, besides such aspects as period of develop-ment (economy of exercise of locomotion nature is much better in postpubertal children than in prepuber-tal ones [25]), or percentage of body fat, differentiation between genders should also be considered.

These considerations should also emphasize econ-omy of walking and running effort determined through assessment of oxygen consumption or level of oxygen intake observed during functional equilibrium for the given walking or running speeds at submaximal inten-sity [26, 27, 28, 29]. During investigations of children, running economy is mainly expressed as a value of oxygen intake during exercise with a particular, sub-maximal intensity. Rowland et al. [26] show that this measure in children in prepubertal phase of develop-ment can be formed by the level of VO2 · kg–1 recorded during running at the speed of 9.6 km · h–1 or the val-ue of ∆VO2 · kg–1 induced by the speed increment of 1.6 km · h–1. Running economy can be also determined based on assumption of linear relationship between running speed and VO2 oxygen intake. To achieve this, the physiological cost to cover 1 kilometre based on oxygen intake during running effort at submaximal intensity is estimated. The physiological cost deter-mined using this procedure estimated by McMiken and Daniels [30] amounted to nearly 200 m · kg–1 of body mass per 1 km of covered distance. It is generally ac-cepted that running economy in children is much lower than in young people or adults, which involves higher physiological cost of exercise [31, 32, 25]. The results of studies by Donkervilet et al. [25] show that running and walking economy is markedly different between sexes even in children at younger age. Girls at the age of ten were characterized by better economy of both walking and running effort, which was caused by better motor coordination. Higher values of oxygen intake recorded in boys during walking exercise by Gradek and Cempla [14] in relation to girls and higher relative load in boys expressed in %VO2max might point to enhanced walk-ing economy in girls.

Silva and Lopes [33] reported that frequent obesity and higher blood pressure is connected with reduced level of daily physical activity. Children who commute to schools using public transportation, scooters or cars show excessive body mass and adipose tissue consid-erably more frequently than their peers who travel to schools by walking or cycling. However, according to Sallis and Glanz [34], modern transportation and urban solutions limit daily physical activity. Large distances

between schools and homes, lack of pavements and cycle lanes cause that it is faster and safer for children to get to school using public transportation or cars rather than by walking or cycling. Thus, it is more and more of-ten emphasized that effi ciency of prevention and treat-ing obesity can be based only on slimming programs whose effi ciency is often insignifi cant and the obtained effects are maintained for only a short period of time. It is also highlighted that promotion of healthy lifestyles should encompass, among other things, adaptation of communication and urban solutions in a way that allows for safe, physically active commuting to school or work and ensuring conditions for physical recreation, which is of particular importance in large agglomerations. To sum up, locomotion effort constitute a natural form of movement which involves all large muscle groups. However, during these type of exercise, obese children must carry additional body mass, which is connected, among other things, with joint overload. However, giv-ing up public transportation or cars used for commut-ing to schools or work might impact, through children’s increased amount of daily physical activity, on reduc-tion in excessive body mass. Movement-related games based on running or walking forms of physical exercise are also a big attraction for children, therefore they can be enjoyable alternative to a monotonous slimming therapies and might contribute to the increase in time spent each day on physical activity.

Conclusions

The cost of physical exercise during walking effort is higher in girls with excessive body fat. This fact is con-fi rmed by higher values of %VO2max recorded at the same intensities of test effort. Dynamics of changes in physiological parameters during walking effort, when excess body mass contributed to higher physiological load in girls with excessive adipose tissue, were simi-lar in both groups but they maintained at signifi cantly different levels. Most of the analysed physiological pa-rameters were at higher level in girls with excess body fat. Intensity of exercise considerably affected the value of intergroup differences in the level of physi-ological parameters. The reason for this (apart from additional load in the form of excess body fat carried during this form of exercise performed by overweight girls) might be the method of load selection, compa-rable for all the girls in terms of locomotion speed but without consideration of individual effort-related abili-ties of the body.


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PHYSICAL FITNESS PROGRESSION IN WOMEN WITH OBESITY UNDER THE INFLUENCE

OF REGULAR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

POPRAWA SPRAWNOŚCI FIZYCZNEJ KOBIET Z OTYŁOŚCIĄ POD WPŁYWEM REGULARNEJ

AKTYWNOŚCI RUCHOWEJ

Jan Ślężyński*, Ilona Ślężyńska**, Marzena Ślężyńska***

****Prof. dr. habil., the Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, Poland****MSc, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland****Student, the Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, Poland

Key words: obesity, physical activity, healthy lifestyleSłowa kluczowe: otyłość, aktywność fizyczna, zdrowy styl życia

Aim of the work. To prove that regular physical activity combined with rational lifestyle have positive influ-ence on physical fitness improvement, adipose tissue reduction and weight loss in obese women.

Material and methods. The research was conducted on 40 women with different obesity degree, aged be-tween 20–55; the average age 39.3. Body mass measurements and adipose tissue proportional measurements were performed using the Tanita scales, the device that uses the bioelectrical impedance analysis. During the 9-month observation the subjects took part in physical activities (aerobic and swimming) three times a week. Physical fitness was evaluated by the fitness tests in May 2002 and in February 2003. Sit-ups, standing long jump, shuttle run agility test 3×10 m and forward bends were measured.

Results. The researchers showed that this 9-month period of regular physical activity had a significant impact on the improvement of physical fitness and the reduction of adipose tissue among tested women.

Conclusions. Somatic and fitness measurements have motivated obese women to accept, implement and promote healthy lifestyle.

Cel pracy. Wykazać, że regularna aktywność ruchowa, w połączeniu z racjonalnym trybem życia, wpływa korzystnie na poprawę sprawności fizycznej oraz redukcję tkanki tłuszczowej i zmniejszenie masy ciała kobiet z otyłością.

Materiał i metody. Badaniom poddano 40 kobiet o różnym stopniu nadwagi i otyłości w wieku 20–55 lat; średnia wieku 39,3 lat. Do pomiaru masy ciała i procentowej zawartości tkanki tłuszczowej w ustroju posłużyła waga Tanita. Urządzenie wykorzystuje technikę impedancji bioelektrycznej. Przez 9 miesięcy badane kobiety uczęszczały trzy razy w tygodniu na zajęcia ruchowe (aerobik i pływanie). Sprawność fizyczną oceniano próbami sprawnościowymi wykonywanymi w maju 2002 roku i lutym 2003 roku, w skład których wchodziły: siady z leżenia, skok w dal z miejsca, bieg wahadłowy 3 × 10 m i skłon w przód.

Wyniki. Badania wykazały, że 9-miesięczna regularna aktywność ruchowa w znacznym stopniu wpłynęła na poprawę sprawności fizycznej oraz zmniejszenie procentowej zawartości tkanki tłuszczowej u badanych kobiet.

Wnioski. Pomiary somatyczne i sprawnościowe motywowały kobiety z nadwagą i otyłością do zaakceptowania, wdrożenia i promowania aktywnego ruchowo stylu życia.



Jan Ślężyński, Ilona Ślężyńska, Marzena Ślężyńska

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Introduction

Obesity is the tendency to accumulate the fat tissue in human body. It can be divided into 3 types which are characterized by the increased number of fat cells (hyperplasic obesity) or by the increased size of the adiposities (hypertrophic obesity) or both of these ten-dencies (mixed obesity) [1, 2] . Normal proportion of adipose tissue in adult women should be 12–16% and in men 12–14% of total body mass. Obesity in men is diagnosed when the adipose tissue exceeds 25% and in women when it exceeds 30% of body mass.

There are several methods of obesity and over-weight evaluation. Most common in use is body mass index, calculated with formula: BMI= body mass in ki-los/ (height in meters). The World Health Organisation (WHO) has accepted the following body mass index classifi cation: the norm → overweight (20–24.9 kg/m2) → obesity I° (30–34.9 kg/m2) → obesity II° (35–39.9 kg/m2) → and obesity III° (over 40 kg/m2).

Fat deposition can be also evaluated by the skin folds thickness, usually measured below the shoulder blade, over the triceps brachii and in the abdomen.

Body mass is usually controlled by the traditional scales which are not sensitive enough to measure fat deposition in the body. Therefore, it should be empha-sized that the real danger is not the weight (over normal body mass) but excessive fat deposition. Reduction of adipose tissue that usually goes hand in hand with weight loss is the main goal of balanced diet and physi-cal activity.

Fast working so-called ‘magic diets’, although lower body mass, but by reducing muscle mass and by body dehydration. Those who exercise systematically can be dissatisfi ed with the slow pace of weight loss, since the reduction of fat tissue is usually combined with the increase of muscle mass. The ‘average‘ scales do not distinguish it. The latest technique of body tissue con-stituents evaluation is bioelectrical impedance analysis which send a weak, safe electric current through body tissues. In this way, thanks to such devices as Tanita, body mass weight as well as fat, muscle and water de-position in human body can be evaluated.

There are several obesity classifi cations. Anthropo-metrical measurements describe the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR ratio). This way gynoid obesity (pear-like), char-acteristic for women, is described: rounded hips, more fat located in the upper part of the body, buttocks, and thighs. Android (visceral) obesity (apple-like) is charac-teristic for men.

Visceral obesity (apple-type) is diagnosed when the WHR ratio is equal or higher than 0.8 in women and 1.0 in men. If the ratio is below 0.8 in women and 1.0 in men, the gynoid obesity (pear-type) is diagnosed [2].

Increased adipose tissue mass that causes over-weight or obesity also contributes to various metabolic, functional and organic disorders, especially in motor system and circulatory system.

Obesity is connected with more frequent occurrence of such diseases as diabetes type 2, hypertension, hy-perlipidosis (the ratio between ‘good’ cholesterol HDL and ‘bad’ LDL is important), cerebral haemorrhage, ischemic heart disease, cholecystolithiasis, arthrosis – especially gonarthrosis and spondyloarthrosis and aricose veins of the lower extremities [3, 4, 5].

Basic obesity treatments: 1. Diet – aside from low calorie food it is recommen-

ded fat and monosaccharide intake reduction to-gether with great increase of vegetables and fruits intake. The diet should consist of 30–50% protein, 25% fats and 25–40% carbohydrates.

2. Physical activity – apart from diet and physical ac-tivity – is the fundamental component of slimming diet; it increases metabolism and eliminates meta-bolic dysfunctions.

3. Pharmacological treatment – it is used when BMI exceeds 30.

4. Surgical treatment – is used when BMI exceeds 40.

5. Psychological stimulation – increases the therapy effi cacy regardless of the body mass reduction and changes in nutrition habits.

Proper physical activity can regulate body mass, equalize energy balance and diminish the risk of obesity-accompanying diseases. The higher physical activity – the more reduction in body mass can be ex-pected.

Body mass reduction is possible under condition that physical activity is combined with proper diet and do-ing exercises with the intensity around 70% of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max). As we understand, physical activity is every physical exertion of the skeletal muscles with energetic expenditure over the static level or indis-pensible for sustaining vital body functions.

Regular physical exercise is usually accompanied with profi table changes in the body, which are essential elements in obesity prevention and treatment. Physical activity can be spontaneous or organized, programmed. Highly recommended are: energetic march, jogging

Physical fitness progression in women with obesity under the influence of regular physical activity

– 81 –

and jogtrot, cycling, sport games, gymnastics, swim-ming, rowing, aerobic, ski running, hiking and mountain hiking.

Elderly people should avoid exercises with sudden body movements, excessive loads on joints and exer-tions with head upside down. Before starting physical exercising, physical effi ciency should be evaluated.

In case of circulatory insuffi ciency, ischemic heart disease, hypertension, acute infections, unstabilized dia-betes – excessive physical exertion is contraindicated.

Physical activity is an essential element of healthy life-style. Obesity reduces life expectancy for 10–12 years. People with body mass lower for about 10% live longer. Suffering from overweight and obese bear additional costs of every physical exertion after its fi nishing [4, 6].

Movement therapy can be effective in moderate obesity. In massive obesity the therapy must be com-bined with adequate diet and intensive physical exer-cises. The extreme forms of obesity are treated mainly with dietetic and pharmacological or sometimes surgi-cal treatment [3, 6].

Thanks to physical activity increase it is possible to maintain the energy without strict diet which may cause some nutritional defi ciency. Physical activity is the physiological must from early childhood to old age as it stimulates physical and psychological development and favours human vitality. The basis of movement is the activity of the skeletal muscles that intensifi es metabo-lism. The researches have proved that obesity causes negative health consequences and physical activity is a great chance for positive changes. Positive infl uence of physical activity in human body is more and more appreciated in contemporary civilization [7–17].

Research objective

The objective of the research was to evaluate tissue components, especially the level of physical fi tness in women with overweight and obesity before and after their 9-month participation in fi tness improving exercis-es. Suitable chosen effi ciency tests were to diagnose and control changes related to this physical activity. It was also important to create a motivation of self-aware physical fi tness stimulation and healthy life promotion.

Materials and research methods

The research was conducted on 40 women with differ-ent obesity degree, aged between 20–55 (the average age 39.3) who took part in the movement therapy in

‘Plus-size Club’ in Knurów. The therapy was held three times a week for one hour (swimming and aerobic) dur-ing the period of 9 months.

Among the subjects there were 72% married wom-en, 23% unmarried women and 5% widows. The fami-lies of 3 persons (44%) and of 4 persons (33%) were in majority with few exceptions of the numerous families (18%) and of 2 persons families (5%). The working-class origin was dominant (47%) subsequently there was intellectual-class origin (28%) and rural origin (25%). Most of the participants completed second-ary education (52%) and had higher education (25%), only a few of them had elementary education (15%) and incomplete higher education (8%). On the basis of waist-to-hip ratio the WHR ratio was calculated, and as a result 29 women were classifi ed as having visceral (androidal) obesity and 11 women as having gynoid obesity.

For the measurements of the body mass and the percentage of adipose tissue was used the Tanita scale which uses – as it has been mentioned before – the bioelectrical impedance analysis. The measurements were taken twice: in May and in November 2002.

For physical fi tness evaluation, which took place in May 2002 and in February 2003, the fi tness tests including the measures of sit-ups, standing long jump, shuttle run test and forward bends1 were used.

Method of fi tness tests performance:1. Sit-ups (strength) – lying down on back, legs bent

at 90-degree angle in knee-joint, feet spread at the width of about 30 cm, hands with intertwined fi ngers and placed under the head, the partner on knees between the recumbent person’s feet, pressing them to the mattress. On the signal, the recumbent person touched knees with elbows, and after that she immediately returned to recumbent position to enable her intertwined fi ngers contact with the fl oor and anew was doing sit-up without pushing herself back with elbows off the mattress. The number of sit-ups properly done in 30 seconds was regis-tered.

2. Standing long jump (force) – tested person stood astride with feet parallel to the fi xed line, next slightly leaned the torso forward, bent legs (not more than 90-degree) simultaneously waving arms forward and vigorously rebounded from the fl oor to make the longest jump. One out of three jumps, measured

1 The tests were taken from International Physical Fitness Test [18] with slight modifi cations.


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to the closest trace left by the hill, was registered (in centimetres).

3. Shuttle run 3 × 10 meters (agility) – running from standing position from the start-line to pole B, lo-cated 10 meters from the start-line, next running around it – returning to the start line, where “fi eld A” was located, again running around it and running back to “fi eld B” were was the fi nishing line. The fastest result out of two runs was registered with up to 0,1 sec. accuracy.

4. Forward bend (fl exibility) – the tested person was standing at the elevation with toes at the verge of that elevation, feet together, legs straight in knee-joints. In this position the person was doing for-ward bend trying to reach with fi ngers the lowest line with the scale and hold this position for 2 sec. The centimetre scale was placed perpendicularly to the elevation surface. The elevation, on which the tested person was standing, was marked as 0, over the elevation was the positive scale and below the negative scale. Better score out of two was regis-tered.

Furthermore, from May 2002 till March 2003 in two--month intervals the measurements of chest, hips and waist ambit as well as the measurements of body weight were taken. Systematic measurements enabled to con-trol adipose tissue loss in specifi c body parts and were encouraging factors in continue physical exertion.

In March 2003, the participants were asked to fi ll in the questionnaire for informative and preventive pur-poses. The questionnaire played important role in rec-ognizing the habits and demeanours infl uencing posi-tively or negatively on overweight or obesity.

The data of measurements was statistically com-piled to calculate arithmetic means (x–) and standard deviation (s) as well as variation coeffi cient (V). The differences relevance of arithmetic means was evalu-

ated by the Student’s t-test. Two relevance levels were taken: p < 0.01 and p < 0.05.

The main findings

In May 2002 following degrees of obesity were identi-fi ed among tested women: 12.5% in the standard; 45% on the border of the normal, close to obesity; 25% obe-sity I°; and 17.5% obesity II°, while in March 2003 this proportion positively changed: 17.5% in the standard, 47.5% before obesity, 25% obesity I°; and 10% obe-sity II° (Table 1).

Average height of examined women was 163.5 cm. The measurements of tissue components were made twice, using Tanita scales: in May and in November 2002. After half a year of physical exercises (twice a week aerobic and once a week aqua aerobic) in women with different obesity degrees following fea-tures were reduced: body mass BMI, the basal me-tabolism, body impedance for electric impulse fl ow, adipose tissue mass, tissue-free total body mass and general body water volume. In May 2002 average BMI was 29.87 and in November 2002 – 28.92 unit meas-urement (Table 2).

Proportionally to body mass the basal metabolic rate BMR was lowered. It evaluates the metabolism in repose, and indispensable energy expenditure for sus-taining basic vital functions. In May 2002 BMR rate was 1546 kcal and in November 2002 –1511 kcal.

Simultaneously with adipose tissue loss the body impedance for electric impulse fl ow was also lowered. The muscles acts as electrical while tissue as resistor; the less tissue content the lower is the body imped-ance.

In May 2002 average was 464.8 Ω, and in November 2002–475,9 Ω. There was also slight adipose tissue loss. Fat mass in total body mass was in May 2002 – 36.9% and in November – 36.2%,

Table 1. Obesity degrees in examined women determined by Body Mass Index

Obesity degree May 2002 March 2003

n % n %

Normal 5 12.5 7 17.5

Overweight 18 45.0 19 47.5

Obesity I° 10 25.0 10 25.0

Obesity II° 7 17.5 4 10.0


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Hence it can be concluded that the percentage of fat mass in total body mass was reduced. Similar effect was observed in tissue mass; before starting physical activity the average was 29.8 kg and in November 2002 – 28.5 kg. Accordingly, slight reduction in tissue of the examined women was observed.

Fat-free body mass was also measured (muscles, internal organs, bones and water) and it also under-went positive changes; in May 2002 it was average 50.1% and in November 2002 it was lowered to 48.8%. General body water volume measurements were also signifi cant as it composed of 50–70% of total body mass. Higher hydration level is observed in men than in women what is connected to their bigger muscle mass. Fluctuations of body hydration are physiological and dependent mainly on nourishment and physical

activity. Among examined women following volumes of body water were registered: in May 2002 – 37.0 kg, in November 2002 – 35.7 kg. Therefore, general body water volume was reduced.

Summarizing, it is should be stated that under the infl uence of physical activity during those 6 months the body mass and the BMI was reduced. Proportionally to lower body mass, the basal metabolism was lowered. Comparing the proportional tissue content in total body mass in May 2002 and November 2002 it is resulted that in majority of the women (28) it was lowered.

Similar observations were made to tissue mass. Therefore, physical activity has brought the expected effects to those women.

Physical effi ciency examinations (table 3) have re-vealed that systematic movement exercises signifi cant-

Table 2. Somatic features of the examined women in May 2002 (I) and October 2003 (II)

Feature Examination Min–max x s V d t

Body mass in kgI 59.1–105.3 79.95 11.53 14.45

–2.76 0.987II 57.7–101.7 77.19 11.05 14.31

Body mass indexI 22.0–39.7 29.87 4.32 14.46

–0.95 0.85II 21.7–39.7 28.92 4.22 14.59

Basal metabolism in kJI 5277–7511 6469 509 7.87

–146 1.32II 5221–7261 6323 462 7.31

Basal metabolism in kcalI 1261–1795 1546 121 7.87

–35 1.32II 1248–1736 1511 110 7.31

Body impendenceI 304–600 464.8 70.9 15.25

11.1 0.74II 344–578 475.9 59.3 12.56

Fat free body massI 41.6–60.9 50.10 4.58 9.14

–1.31 1.36II 41.2–57.4 48.79 3.87 7.93

Body fat percentage I 26.2–46.8 36.88 5.19 14.07

–0.66 0.54II 25.6–46.2 36.22 5.50 15.18

Adipose tissue mass I 16.4–44.4 29.81 7.91 26.53

–1.30 0.71II 15.7–45.6 28.51 8.12 28.48

Body water volumeI 30.5–44.6 37.05 3.04 8.20

–1.34 2.02

II 30.2–42.0 35.71 2.81 7.86


– 84 –

ly improved abdominal muscle strength of participants, and that was confi rmed by the increase in average sit-ups number between the scores in May 2002 (15.9) and November 2002 (18.9).

The researchers observed signifi cant improvement in examined women’s force: in May 2002 the aver-age score of standing long jumps was 136 cm and in November 2002 – 146 cm. The slight progress in agility (forward bend) was also made: from 3.33 cm to 4.75 cm in February 2003. Examined women signifi cantly improved the results in shuttle run test 3 × 10 m (agil-ity): in May 2002 the average score was 12.3 sec. while in February 2003 it was 11.6 sec. Most of the subjects (36) obtained better results and only few of them (4) had worse results.

Summing up all results of effi ciency tests it should be stressed signifi cant agility, force and strength improve-ment and slight fl exibility improvement. Regular 9-month physical activity, apparently has lead to versatile physical effectiveness improvement in examined women.

Table 3. Physical efficiency in May 2002 and February 2003 (II)

Feature Examination Min–max x s V d* t

Sit-ups – strength I 8–22 15.95 3.46 21.69

2.92 3.80II 12–25 18.87 3.32 17.59

Standing long jump – force I 110–170 136 15 11.02

10 2.49II 100–190 146 20 13.69

Forward bend – flexibilityI –18–15 3.33 7.72 231.83

1.42 0.71II –15–19 4.75 9.75 205.26

Shuttle run test – agilityI 10.1–15.5 12.28 0.81 6.59

–0.67 3.76II 10.2–14.0 11.61 0.76 6.54

* the differences (d) which are significant on level 0.01 were distinguished with bold print and on level 0.05 with italics

Conclusions

The research allows to formulate following conclu-sions: 1. Physical activity turned out to be a signifi cant fac-

tor to counteract obesity. Among women who were exercising, the body mass was lowered as well as the breast ambit and waist ambit and slightly hips ambit. Adipose tissue was reduced together with slightly fat-free body mass reduction.

2. Under the infl uence of physical activity the move-ment activity was improved signifi cantly: strength, agility, force and slightly fl exibility. Better physical fi tness is simultaneously better life comfort.

3. Rational lifestyle and physical activity infl uenced positively on reduction of overweight and obesity. Somatic and fi tness measurements have motivated women with obesity to healthy acceptance, imple-mentation and promotion of healthy lifestyle.


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[5] Rywik S, Węgrowska W, Piotrkowski P, Broda G: Epi-demiologia otyłości jako czynnik ryzyka chorób układu krążenia. Polski Tygodnik Lekarski, 1995, supl. 1: 63–67.

[6] Białkowska M, Szostak WB: Wybór metody leczenia oty-łości w zależności od stopnia zagrożenia zdrowia. Polski Tygodnik Lekarski, 1995, supl. 1: 48–50.

[7] Drabik J: Aktywność fi zyczna w edukacji zdrowotnej społeczeństwa. Gdańsk, AWF, 1999.


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[8] Drabik J: Aktywność fi zyczna w treningu zdrowotnym osób dorosłych, Gdańsk, AWF, 1997.

[9] Fijałkowski W, Karpińska B: Ruch a zdrowie kobiety. Warszawa, PZWL, 1981.

[10] Jopkiewicz A (red.): Aktywność ruchowa osób starszych. Kielce, WSP, 1996.

[11] Kuński H: Elementy zdrowotne rekreacji fi zycznej osób w wieku średnim. Warszawa, IWZZ, 1985.

[12] Nazar K, Kociuba-Uściłko H: Aktywność ruchowa w za-pobieganiu i leczeniu otyłości. Polski Tygodnik Lekarski 1995; supl. 1: 68–69.

[13] Romanowski W, Eberhardt A: Profi laktyczne znaczenie zwiększonej aktywności ruchowej człowieka. Warszawa, PZWL, 1972.

[14] Vaccaro P, Clinton M: The effects of aerobik dance condition-

ing on the body composition and maximal oxygen uptake of college women. Journal Sports Medicine, 1981; 21.

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[17] Zając A, Waśkiewicz Z: Dietetyczno-treningowe wspoma-ganie zdrowia i sprawności fi zycznej. Katowice, AWF, 2001.

[18] Pilicz S, Przewęda R, Dobosz J, Nowacka-Dobosz S: Punktacja sprawności fi zycznej młodzieży polskiej według Międzynarodowego Testu Sprawności Fizycznej. Warszawa, AWF, 2004.

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ABILITY TO SELF-CONTROL IN THE CONTEXT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN SCHOOLCHILDREN

AT THE AGE OF 10–11

ZDOLNOŚĆ DO SAMOKONTROLI W KONTEKŚCIE AKTYWNOŚCI FIZYCZNEJ

U UCZNIÓW W WIEKU 10–11 LAT

Vytė Kontautienė*, Audronius Vilkas**

***MSc, assistant, Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Pedagogy, Klaipėda University, Klaipėda, Lithuania***Prof. dr., Department of Theory of Physical Education, Faculty of Sports and Health Education, Vilnius Pedagogical

University, Vilnius, Lithuania

Key words: self-control, ability, social skills, physical activity, pupils at the age of 10–11Słowa kluczowe: samokontrola, rozwój, nawyki socjalne, aktywność fizyczna, uczniowie

w wieku 10–11 lat

Aim of the work. To evaluate the ability to self-control of schoolchildren at 10–11 years of age. The re-search was conducted in the primary classes of comprehensive schools in Klaipėda city and district in January 2009.

Material and methods. The sample of the surveyed was 99 pupils of the third and fourth forms, including 59.6% of girls and 40.4% of boys. The research based on the literature survey of this subject area was done by means of questionnaire and mathematical statistics tools (Cronbach’s Alpha, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, and the Student’s t-test and χ2 analysis). The questionnaire of self-control evaluation was designed on the basis of the programme To grow and strengthen of Lithuanian physical culture, as well as Riggio and Friedman’s (1982, 1983) Social skills inventory for emotional control and social control.

Results. A weak tendency was established to the effect that children, who knew the rules of behavior and observed them, were generally more patient (p < 0.01). Children who tended to think in an optimistic way were better able to cope with the difficulties they encountered (p < 0.001). Tidy school learners were generally patient (p < 0.01). Courageous pupils were better able to cope with the difficulties they encountered, which was the proof of ability to control oneself (p < 0.001); an essential correlation was established between the gender and the knowledge of the rules and their observation (p < 0.001).

Conclusions. The scale of the self-control behavior models (Cronbach’s Alpha: 0.716), applied for the evaluation of expression of the self-control ability, demonstrated the existence of personal qualities significant for self-control and the models of self-control behavior. The opinions of girls and boys on when they were least able to control themselves were statistically significant. The girls tended to think that they were least able to control themselves when they were hurt or insulted (p < 0.05) or in the situations when they were not correctly understood (p < 0.05). The boys find it difficult to control their emotions when others manage to perform tasks and they fail.

Cel pracy. Ocena zdolności do samokontroli uczniów w wieku 10–11 lat w kontekście aktywności fizycznej. Materiał i metody. Badaniami prowadzonymi w 2009 r. objęto 99 dzieci w wieku 10–11 lat, uczniów klas

trzecich i czwartych szkół ogólnokształcących w Kłajpedzie i rejonie kłajpedzkim. Grupę tworzyło 59,6% uczennic



Vytė Kontautienė, Audronius Vilkas

– 88 –

i 40,4% uczniów płci męskiej. Na podstawie analizy literatury przedmiotu, wytycznych zatwierdzonego do realiza-cji na Litwie programu wychowania fizycznego Dorastać i stawać się silniejszym (2004) oraz konkluzji zawartych w pracach Riggio i Friedmana (1982, 1983), dotyczących nawyków społecznych, opracowano kwestionariusz do badań nad kontrolą fizyczną, emocjonalną i społeczną. Do analizy danych posłużono się narzędziami statystyki matematycznej (współczynnik alfa Cronbacha, korelacja rangowa Spearmana, kryteria testu t-Studenta i χ2).

Wyniki. Zaobserwowano słabą tendencję, zgodnie z którą dzieci znające i respektujące zasady savoir vivre’u są na ogół cierpliwe (p < 0, 01); dzieci, które wykazują zdolność do optymistycznego myślenia, przeważnie potrafią radzić sobie z trudnościami (p < 0,001); natomiast uczniowie cechujący się schludnością, przeważnie są też cier-pliwi (p < 0,01); odważni uczniowie na ogół odznaczają się stanowczością (p < 0,001); ustalono także zasadniczy związek korelacyjny między płcią i znajomością zasad zachowania oraz ich przestrzegania (p < 0,001).

Wnioski. Na podstawie oceny zdolności do samokontroli według modelu samokontroli zachowania (współ-czynnik alfa Cronbacha: 0,716) wykazano, że istnieje związek między istotnymi cechami osobowymi a modelami samokontroli zachowania. Dziewczynki i chłopcy w różny sposób rozumieją okoliczności, w których najtrudniej jest im kontrolować samych siebie. Z badań wynika, że uczniowie w wieku 10–11 lat wykazują ograniczoną zdolność do samokontroli sprawności fizycznej. Uczniom brakuje nawyków samokontroli sprawności fizycznej, sprawdzania i korygowania częstotliwości pulsu i oddechu podczas ćwiczeń fizycznych, aktywności fizycznej i przygotowania fizycznego.

Introduction

In the system of physical culture of contemporary com-prehensive schools, physical education is viewed as an activity that develops pupils’ psychomotoric abilities, contributes to accumulating knowledge and also trains their social skills necessary for all fi elds of life.

Social abilities can be defi ned as a kind of beha-viour that in certain social situations results in an ad-equate ratio of positive and negative consequences for an individual, social environment, and society at large. One of such abilities, recognized as a contem-porary trend in the research into sport psychology, is self-control.

In the science of sport, self-control (selbstkon-trolle, самоконтроль) is understood as a purposeful observation, analysis, and correction of one’s health condition, physical development, physical fi tness, mental condition, emotions, behaviour, and actions in the process of physical education or professional training [3]. Self-control can also be attached to social skills.

Subjective (a good physical condition, sleep, ap-petite, willingness to exercise, and load tolerance) and objective (one’s weight, pulse, breathing, and blood pressure) indicators of self-control were identifi ed. For Aleksejeva and Melnikov (Алексеева, Мельников) [4], the objective self-control indicators were anthropomet-ric measurements: pulse, frequency of breathing, vital capacity of lungs, orthostatic sample, holding breath, and other tests, while the subjective self-control indica-tors included one’s physical condition, working capa-city, sleep, appetite, digestion disorders, and increased thirst. The number of self-control indicators could differ,

and the important thing was to learn to correctly identify and evaluate them [4].

As indicated by the analysis of specialist literature, the self-control abilities were to be trained from early childhood. Junior school age was a suitable period to start developing self-control ability due to the psycho-social and moral evolution of a child at 7–10 years of age and the formation of favourable physical and men-tal conditions [5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. The analysis proved that the school age was conducive to the development of self-control abilities, especially by means of sports ac-tivities, as the self-control skills were formed for the rest of one’s life [10].

Great attention has been paid to research in the so-cial skills (moral, situational, essential, and competitive) of pupils going in for sports [11, 12, 13]. Lately, scien-tifi c works on sports have been analyzing the charac-teristics of sportsmen’s self-regulation and self-control [14, 15, 10, 12, 16]. The said research most frequently disclosed the manifestations of subjective and mental self-control that were expressed by the ability to control and regulate one’s own emotional state.

However, few works could be found on the subject of studies of self-control at junior schol age, i.e. at pri-mary school.

The aim of the research is to evaluate the expres-sion of primary school pupils’ self-control abilities.

The tasks of the research are the following: 1) to evaluate the 3rd–4th form pupils’ knowledge of

physical self-control in terms of gender; 2) to establish whether the girls’ and boys’ understand-

ing of self-control differs; 3) to evaluate optimal conditions for the expression of

self-control abilities.

Ability to self-control in the context of physical activity in schoolchildren at the age 10–11

– 89 –

Material and method

Organization of the research. The research was con-ducted in primary forms of comprehensive schools of Klaipėda city and district in January 2009. The sample of the survey was 99 school learners of the 3rd and 4th forms: 59.6 % of girls and 40.4% of boys.

Research methods. The following methods were used: analysis of specialist literature, survey applying questionnaires, mathematical statistics (Cronbach’s Alpha, Spearman’s rank correlation coeffi cient, and the Student’s t-test and χ2 analysis). The questionnaire of self-control evaluation was designed on the basis of the programme To grow and strengthen [17] of Lithuanian physical culture, and with the help of Social skills inven-tory for emotional control and social control by Riggio and Friedman [18, 19].

Results

By means of mathematical statistics methods a scale of behaviour models typical of self-control, as well as scale norms of personal qualities signifi cant for self-control, were designed. To establish the validity of the scales, the internal consistency of the variables – com-ponents of the scale was evaluated, with Cronbach’s

Alpha applied, and the internal consistency of the scale was established. As Cronbach’s Alpha on the scale of personal qualities was 0.782 (n = 10), and on the behaviour scale Cronbach’s Alpha 0.716 (n = 22), the scale can be said to be homogeneous and quite a valid means of measurement.

Table 1 shows the correlations between personal qualities signifi cant for self-control and behaviour mod-els of self-control. In the analysis of personal qualities signifi cant for self-control and the models of behaviour typical of self-control, the following weak tendency was established (Spearman’s rho = 0.272, p = 0.007): the children who knew the rules of behaviour and ob-served them were frequently characterized as patient (p ≤ 0.01).

A weak but statistically signifi cant (Spearman’s rho = 0.368, p < 0.000) correlation (weak tendency) be-tween personal quality of optimism and ability to fi nd the way how to cope with encountered diffi culties was determined: it means that children inclined to think op-timistically were better able to cope with encountered diffi culties (p < 0.001), which served as a proof of their self-control ability.

In the analysis of the interrelationship of the third- and fourthformers’ personal qualities signifi cant for self-control, a weak (0.289) though statistically signifi -

Table 1. Validity analysis of the scales of self-control behaviour models and of personal qualities significant for self-control

Criterion Scale

Cronbach’s Alpha Number of statements (N)

Scale of personal qualities significant for self-control 0.782 10

Scale of behaviour models typical of self-control 0.716 22

Table 2. Opinions of boys and girls as to when they find it most difficult to control themselves

No. Statement Girls Boys

Agree with the statement

1. I feel lonely 22.00 30.00

2. ** I am hurt 57.6 37.50

3. I work alone, and no one helps 27.1 22.50

4. ** No one understands me 39.0 20.00

5. Others succeed, and I fail to perform the task 45.8 55.00

Note: * – level of significance p ≤ 0.001; ** – level of significance p ≤ 0.01; *** – level of significance p ≤ 0.05.


– 90 –

cant (p = 0.004) relationship between the qualities of tidiness and patience was established (see: Table 3). This relationship demonstrated the following weak ten-dency: tidy school learners were generally also patient, and vice versa, patient school learners were character-ized by personal tidiness (p < 0.01).

Similar relationships were established between the personal qualities of pursuing goals and self-con-fi dence (p ≤ 0.05), resolution and courage (p ≤ 0.001). Consequently, a following weak tendency was estab-lished: school learners who pursued goals were also more self-confi dent, and courageous school learners were more frequently characterized as resolute.

In the analysis of the relationship between the gen-der and self-control behaviour models (see: Table 2), as well as personal qualities typical of self-control, the following generally weak, however, statistically signifi -cant reverse correlation was established: ability of self-confi dence (Spearman’s rho = 0.288, p < 0.01), of being tolerant (Spearman’s rho = 0.227, p < 0.05), and clever (Spearman’s rho = 0.249, p < 0.05), reacting quickly and positively to remarks (Spearman’s rho = 0.277, p < 0.01). An essential correlation was only established between the gender and the knowledge and observa-tion of the rules of behaviour (Spearman’s rho = 0.417, p < 0.001).

With the aim of evaluating the conditions of expres-sion of self-control abilities, a problematic question was raised in the research whether the girls’ and boys’ an-swers to the question: When do you fi nd it most diffi cult to control yourselves? differed. To assess the differ-ences in the answers of the boys and the girls, the Chi

Square criterion was applied. The answers in percent are presented in Table 3.

As witnessed by the data in the table, not all the differences in the respondents’ answers were statisti-cally signifi cant. Statistically signifi cant differences in the answers of boys and girls as to when they found it most diffi cult to control their emotions occurred in the following cases: the girls, more frequently than the boys, were inclined to think that they found it diffi cult to control their emotions when they were hurt or insulted (χ² = 3.863, df = 1, p = 0.049) and in the situations when they were not understood correctly (χ² = 3.994, df = 1, p = 0.046). For 55% of the boys, it was most diffi cult to control their emotions when others succeeded and they failed to perform the task; however no statistically signifi cant differences were established.

The expression of the respondents’ self-control abilities was evaluated according to the programme of Lithuanian Physical Education To grow and to strength-en (Augti ir stiprėti) [17]. The respondents were asked to answer nine questions about self-control in PE les-sons; the distribution of results conveyed in percent is shown in Table 4.

The frequency of pulse was one of the physical self-control indicators signifi cant for the evaluation and correction of physical load. The percentage shows that 53.4% of girls and 54.1% of boys managed to recognize correctly that their pulse was the least frequent while ly-ing. Unfortunately, the others (46.6% of girls and 45.9% of boys) did not manage to recognize when their pulse was the least frequent and gave wrong answers (while standing, walking, running).

Table 3. The correlation of personal qualities and models of behaviour

The correlation between personal qualities and behaviour Spearman’s correlation coefficient Statistical significance

** Tidy Patient

0.289 p = 0.004

*** Pursuing goals Self-confident

0.240 p = 0.018

** Patient I know the rules of behaviour to be observed, and I observe them

0.272 p = 0.007

* Resolute Courageous

0.418 p = 0.000

* Optimist If I encounter a difficulty, I find a way to cope with it

0.368 p = 0.000

Note: * – level of significance p ≤ 0,001; ** – level of significance p ≤ 0,01; *** – level of significance p ≤ 0,05.


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Discussion

Generalising the discussed problem it can be stated that the abilities of self-control of primary learners have not been investigated extensively. The researches on pecu-liarities of self-control abilities have been carried out but not during the lessons of physical training. The works of some authors analyse self-control not as social be-haviour of primary learners but from the perspective of other various (disabled, delinquent) social groups [20]. A considerable attention is paid to the researches on social skills (moral, situational, essential, competition) of sports athletes and senior school learners actively in-volved in sports [11, 12, 13] as well as to the studies on peculiarities of their self-regulation and self-control [21, 14]. According to the researches of other authors [22, 23] the programme of psychological training can be ef-fi ciently applied for the development of self-control skills; however, these researches were conducted on high pro-fi ciency athletes and the works on development of self-control skills at junior school age are scarce.

Ringio and Friedman [18, 19], Malinauskas [24], Šniras, Malinauskas [25] conducted similar research-es on self-control but they investigated self-control in a broader context of essential social skills. Since es-sential social skills are perceived as automated abili-ties, it is obvious that school learners are able to de-velop and enhance them.

Self-control is the main aspect of human func-tion and the main component of human behaviour in various cultures. The research on pre-school children carried out by Chinese scientists [26] allowed for com-parison of children’s abilities to self-dependent control

their behaviour in Western and Eastern cultures. Other scientists [27, 29] revealed the researches on primary learners’ self-control, which cannot be interpreted as corresponding to our data because their analysis is focused on other aspects of self-control. Though self-control has been the focus of researches for a long time, very few measurement instruments to evaluate children’s self-control tendencies and behaviour have been created.

Ceccini, Montero et al. [10] investigated the infl u-ence of schoolchildren’s personal and social responsi-bility on self-control and participation in games accord-ing to the rules following the model by Hellison [28]. Thanks to intervention programme the experimental group improved their personal feedback, delayed sa-tisfaction, self-control and processes of self-regulation; the values of personal and social responsibility due to satisfaction and sport mastery increased and simultane-ously a decrease in values of variables related to a wish to win, rough play, contact faults and bad mastery was observed. Above mentioned proves that school age is favourable for development of self-control skills particu-larly through physical activity.

The research on children from 10–11 years of age proved the usefulness of self-control for learning to per-form a movement [29, 16]: children had to decide on their own when the best time for fi nding out the results of performance was. The research results assured that older children better understood the importance of self-control for knowing the results to the process of learning to perform a movement. According to the data of our research, the infl uence of self-control on know-ledge and abilities was not established.

Table 4. The correlation of personal qualities significant for self-control and the self-control behaviour models in terms of gender

Personal qualities significant for self-control and the self-control

behaviour models

Gender

Spearman’s correlation coefficient Statistical significance p

** Self-confident –0.288 p = 0.004

*** Tolerant –0.227 p = 0.024

*** I am resourceful and self-confident

–0.249 p = 0.014

** I quickly respond to remarks –0.277 p = 0.006

* I know the rules of behaviour I have to observe, and I observe them

–0.417 p = 0.000

Note: * – level of significance p ≤ 0.001; ** – level of significance p ≤ 0.01; *** – level of significance p ≤ 0.05.


– 92 –

The research under discussion was based on the structure of self-control abilities applied in the science of sports [3]. Some authors present comparatively dif-ferent interpretations of self-control: Lanc et al. [27] perceive self-control as a double phenomenon, i.e., as an ability to appropriately receive and provide feedback to an adult or a peer, maintaining positive personal re-sponse system through these interactions. Children possessing self-control skills may gain trust of their peers because it allows foreseeing a subset of posi-tive answers in various stimulating situations. The re-search in question confi rmed the signifi cance of self--confi dence to self-control skills. Other authors [26], following the structure of self-control skills developed by Kendall and Wilcox, defi ne it as a comparatively con-sistent tendency of self-command from the cognitive (legal) and behavioural (executive) aspects. Cognitive aspects include deliberation, solution to problems, planning and evaluation, which make a child to behave not in an impulsive way. Abilities to consider, to conduct the chosen behaviour or not to behave in an undesir-able way are ascribed to components of behaviour. In our research the scale of self-control behaviour mo dels was also applied for evaluation of the expression of self-control skills, which emphasised not an impulsive but well-balanced behaviour. These different structures of self-control confi rm that this phenomenon is very complicated and its various aspects may be chosen for its evaluation.

Self-control skills create possibilities for timely iden-tifi cation of negative changes in the body and prevent from negative consequences. Statistically signifi cant difference in opinion of the boys and girls about when their self-control fails was revealed. Similar data were received by Chinese scientists [26], who established that girls are more capable of controlling themselves compared to boys. It was also revealed that children, who grew without brothers or sisters, were more irri-table, less controlled themselves and were less con-cerned about daily activities compared to children who grew in the family not alone.

Traditionally self-control was considered to be a per-sonal trait such as the power of will. Such personality features as self-confi dence, orderliness, punctuality, dili-gence, determination are linked to self-control as well as with values and virtues [30, 31]. Self-control is re-lated to persistence, initiative, courage, determination, an ability to foresee, self-dependence and patience. The researches on adolescents’ spiritual values show that they acknowledge values that embody the good (ho-

nesty, sensitivity, dignity) best, whereas the values that require self-control (devotion to work, self-respect and respect for others, non-compliance with negligence) are evaluated worse [30, 13]. Primary learners living in towns fi nd such values as self-confi dence, honesty, joviality the most important, primary learners from the centres of districts evaluate sympathy, friendliness, po-liteness highest, whereas learners from rural areas see friendliness, respect for others and politeness as the most relevant. All the values are weaker linked with self--control. The scale of self-control behaviour models used for evaluation of self-control abilities expression showed that there exists a link between personal qualities rel-evant to self-control and self-control behaviour models but its substantiation requires further researches.

Self-control opens up new perspectives in physi-cal education not only to follow, organise but also to correct the health condition, physical fi tness, physical development, psychical states, emotions and to ori-ent in changes of own body. This is provided for in the General curriculum framework for primary and basic education [1] which points out that physical activity stimulates an ability to adapt to continuously changing conditions and requirements, it also creates conditions to recognize own individuality, to develop physical and spiritual endurance, self-control abilities, which will be necessary in various critical life situations. The links between physical self-development and psychical health in school learners at the age from 14–16 were confi rmed by the researcher [32, 23]. It was established that physical self-development has a positive effect on psychical health because a statistically relevant (p < 0.05) improvement of psychical balance, i.e., school learners’ self-control abilities, was established. Athletes with strong self-control tend to adjust themselves fl ex-ibly to changing situation, to manage their emotions perfectly and to achieve good sports results effi ciently [23, 15].

Our researches show that self-control skills are im-portant to everyone; therefore, the bases for mastering self-control should be introduced in primary forms. It is necessary to explain the importance and necessity of including these issues in the proper organisation of physical education process and its implementation. We think that this research did not reveal all the factors that have effect on the control of individual’s behaviour in certain situations. It is possible that some school learn-ers may fail to use their self-control skills due to a big number of cognitive, emotional and environmental fac-tors, others may lack these skills and it can be diffi -


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cult for them to use their social skills at the moment of anger. It is necessary to conduct further researches to reveal how long school learners are able to retain self-control skills because if skills are not enhanced, they tend to become weaker [33]. The researches set up new problems: what links are established between physical and self-control skills in the context of physical culture lessons; how self-control skills are developed while developing physical abilities; how to develop physical abilities to improve the level of self-control skills; how to model the process of education during lessons of physical culture to improve self-control skills while developing physical abilities. This embraces only several topical issues, which require both theoretical and empirical analysis in order to expand the pos-sessed knowledge and contribute to the search for new solutions to the problems.

Conclusions

1. The research revealed the differences in expression of self-control skills with regard to gender: the opin-ions of girls and boys about the moments when they fail to control themselves were not the same. The girls tend to think that they fail to control themselves when they are insulted or hurt (p < 0.05) and in situa-tions when they are not understood (p < 0.05). Boys fi nd it diffi cult to control their emotions when others manage to perform tasks and they fail.

2. The scale of self-control models applied for evalua-tion of expression of self-control skills showed that there exists a link between personal qualities rel-

evant to self-control and the models of self-control behaviour. A weak trend (p < 0.01) that children who are aware of behaviour rules and keep to them are more patient in general was established. Children who tend to think in an optimistic way are able to manage diffi culties more frequently (p < 0.001). Statistically relevant correlational link was identifi ed between the gender and awareness of behaviour rules as well as keeping to them (p< 0.001).

3. Analysing the interlinks among personal qualities relevant to self-control of school learners from 10–11 years of age a weak trend was established that these pupils who are organised and neat are in general patient (p < 0.001); the pupils with es-tablished goals are more self-confi dent, (p < 0.05); courageous school learners have more qualities related to determination (p < 0.001).

4. The research revealed insuffi cient physical self--control skills of school learners at the age of 10–11. Approximately the half of 10–11-year-olds in the re-search managed to point out that their pulse rate is lowest in laying position and about two thirds of schoolchildren were able to evaluate correctly nor-mal human temperature, physical peculiarities of jumping and velocity, to notice changes in blood pressure rate while exposed to physical load. The comparative percentage analysis of self-control skills test results shows that school learners lack abilities of physical self-control to observe, monitor and correct the pulse and breathing rate as well as physical activity and physical fi tness in the process of physical education.


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[11] Weinberg SR, Comar W: The effectiveness of psychologi-cal interventions in competitive sport. Sports Medicine, 1994; 18: 406–418.

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socialiniai įgūdžiai trenerio ir komandos draugų akimis. Ugdymas. Kūno kultūra. Sportas, 2004; 2 (52): 79–84.

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[25] Šniras Š, Malinauskas R: Miestų ir rajonų krepšinio sporto mokyklų moksleivių socialinių įgūdžių raiška. Ugdymas. Kūno kultūra. Sportas, 2006; 4 (63): 111–117.

[26] Wang A: Validation of a self-control rating scale in a Chinese preschool. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 2002; 3: 155–162.

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REVIEW PAPERSPRACE PRZEGLĄDOWE

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PUBEBERTY PHASE IN GIRLS – KEY QUESTIONS IN CONNECTION WITH SPORT MASTERY

ZAGADNIENIE FAZY POKWITANIA DZIEWCZĄT W PROBLEMATYCE SZKOLENIA SPORTOWEGO KOBIET

Larysa Genrichovna Shakhlina*, Teresa Socha**

** PhD, professor, National University of Physical Education and Sport of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine** Dr. habil., assoc. prof., Department of Individual Sports, Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, Poland

Key words: teenager, sports preparation, pubescenceSłowa kluczowe: nastolatki, szkolenie sportowe, faza pokwitaniowa

The article considers morph-functional changes that occur in the body of teenage girl in pubertal period and their role in the sports preparation of female athletes. Pubescence or so-called teenage period has a special place in age-specific development process. Teenage period is one of the most critical periods in human life: pubescence is started, the growth of functions of the endocrine systems is continued, the intensified growth and development of all organs and systems is continued, the intensity of metabolism is enhanced, the neu-rohumoral regulation of somatic and vegetative functions is formed and considerably rebuilt.

We conclude that functional abilities of a person are depended on the sex and age. The extreme physi-cal and mental influences on a teenager organism could result in imbalance in regulation of the vegetative functions, changing the efficiency and economy of all systems’ activity. Possibility of manifestation of an in-adequacy between chronological and biological age in some teenagers seems to be very important feature of pubescence period, particularly for sports selection and the following training. To evaluate and compare the indices of the functional state of boys and girls during physical loads it is necessary to regard not a passport but a biological age.

W pracy przedstawiono i poddano analizie szereg zagadnień kluczowych charakterystycznych dla fazy pokwitania dziewcząt oraz ich znaczenie w selekcji do treningu sportowego oraz doborze obciążeń treningowych dla dziewcząt. Faza pokwitania jest jednym z okresów o największym znaczeniu w rozwoju fizycznym i emocjonalnym człowieka. Tempo rozwoju poszczególnych funkcji organizmu ludzkiego w fazie pokwitania nie jest jednorodne, w konsekwencji czego wiek biologiczny nastolatek może różnić się od ich wieku kalendarzowego. Wiek biologiczny może prześcigać lub pozostawać w tyle za wiekiem kalendarzowym. Ponadto istotnym zagadaniem, jak podkreśla Astrand, jest istnienie różnic rozwojowych pomiędzy dziewczętami i chłopcami w tym samym wieku w okresie pokwitania. Różnice dymor-ficzne oraz możliwość istnienia rozbieżności pomiędzy wiekiem kalendarzowym i biologicznym nastolatek powinny być uwzględniane w selekcji dziewcząt do treningu sportowego i doborze treści treningu. Powinno to dotyczyć zarówno aspektu treningu fizycznego, jak i treningu emocjonalnego w trakcie całej kariery sportowej.



Problem

Morph-functional changes that occur in a teenage girl’s body in the pubertal period and their role in the sports preparation of female athletes have been considered.

Teenagers form the huge and most perspective part of the society. Unlike children and adults, they cover up severe health problems, rarely call for a doctor, rarely are hospitalized and that is why offi cial information about their health status is signifi cantly underestimated

Larysa G. Shakhlina, Teresa Socha

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by the health service. As to Sharapova [1], the direc-tor of the Department of Medico-Social Problems of Family, Maternity and Childhood, Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russian Federation, until now there is no unifi ed opinion in Russian literature whether teenagers are in need of special medical provision.

The main goal of teenager medicine is to protect and strengthen the health of teenagers for future op-timal realization of their forces and abilities in creative activity of a society [1, 2].

Subject to the terms of somatic, psychological and social maturation, in 1977 WHO experts proposed to con-sider 10–20-year-old person as a teenager and this defi -nition still applied in the most countries of the world [2].

It is accepted to divide human life cycle into two stages – antenatal and postnatal. The last one, by turn is composed of a line of age-specifi c periods that dif-fer by special features – morphological, physiological, biochemical and functional. Motor activity, changing the functions of an organism, assists in their development, perfection of mechanisms of an adaptation – that is why age-specifi c features of functional abilities of man de-fi ne his working capacity.

Pubescence or so-called teenage [3], or pubertal [4, 5] period has its own place in age-specifi c deve-lopment process. Such periods as: teenage/pubertal (13–16 years of age for boys and 12–15 years of age for girls) and junior (17–21 years of age for boys and 16–20 years of age for girls) should be separated out in a scheme and accepted on the grounds of anatomy, morphology, physiology, biochemistry, pedagogy. After that, the features of growth and development of human body should be accepted by the All-USSR confer-ence on age-specifi c periodization by the Academy of Pedagogical Science of the USSR. While analyzing the scheme of age-specifi c periodization, Chtetcov [6] and Nikityuk [7] emphasize that 13-year-old boys on their pubescence level correspond with 11-year-old girls. That is why pubescence of boys starts just at the begin-ning of teenage period differently to the pubescence of girls, where substantially covers the previous period of the second childhood (the age of 8–12 for boys and 8–11 for girls) [8, 9, 10].

Teenage period is a stage of transition from child-hood to maturity, characterized by the processes of rapidness of tempos of physical, mental, spiritual and social growth. Gurkin [2] emphasizes that teenage pe-riod is a really existing phase in human life, when per-son has not been already a child but not yet an adult [2, 11].

Some authors divide the age of pubescence into two phases: prepubertal, which is very expressed in girls, and pubertal. Menarche is a conditional boarder between them [10, 12, 13].

Boys and girls up to 6 years of age belong to neutral – asexual – period on the level of sexual development. Approximately two-year lasting outdistancing onset of pubertal period of girls in comparison with boys defi nes the necessity for describing fi rstly this phase of onto-genesis in girls. According to belief that the period of pubescence lasts about 10 years, age limits are estab-lished between 7 (8) and 17 (18) years of life. During this period, besides the maturation of a reproductive system, physical development of female body – growth of body length, ossifi cation of growth zones of tubular bones, allocation of adipose tissue on female type, for-mation of constitution typical for women – has being fi nished [9, 14].

The beginning of pubescence in girls is accompa-nied by the increase of epinephros’ secretion of sex steroids up to 7 years of age, and ovaries – up to 10–11 years [23]. Rapid somatic and sexual development of girls is conditioned by activation of sex glands [8, 15]. Clinical sign of prepubertal period of girls, which be-gins with the age of 10–11 years and continues up to 13–14 years, is the acceleration of skeleton growth in length – so-called pubertal “leap of growth” that affects all body size, which is conditioned by anabolic effect of sex hormones. Androgens increase the growth of ske-leton; estrogens cause the maturing of bone tissue and ossifi cation of growth zones of tubular bones [16].

Pubertal leap of growth could increase the body length from 7 to 10 cm per year. From the age of 11–12 years girls are ahead of boys in stature that is con-nected with the earlier beginning of their pubescence. At the age of 13–14 years girls and boys grow almost the same but from the age of 14–15 years boys outrun girls in growth and this excess of growth of men upon women is remained during the whole life [7, 15, 17].

Old formulated hypothesis of the Moscow gynecol-ogists’ school [18, 19] concerning the fact that initiation of pubescence is invoked by maturing of the nucleus hypothalamus participating in regulation of the gonado-tropic functions of hypophisys has been corroborated with current science achievements. While investigat-ing 580 healthy girls at the age of 11–16 it was stated [20] that 22% of them had overweigh (redundant body weight – RBW), and 20% had insuffi cient body weight – its defi cit (DBW). Development of mammary glands as an indicator of the beginning of pubescence in 11-year-

Puberty phase in girls – key questions in connection with sport mastery

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old girls with RBW was twice as intensive as in girls with optimal body weight (OBW) was. At the same time development of mammary glands in girls with DBW was decelerated comparing to girls with OBW.

Menstrual function of the investigated girls with RBW begins at the age of 12.21 ± 0.1 on average, i.e. statistically reliably earlier than in girls with OBW –12.66 ± 0.8 years of age. The average age of menar-che in girls with DBW is reliably subsequent – 13.25 ± 0.15 years of age.

According to Bogdanova [20], menstruation in girls begins when they gain 45.5 ± 1.6 kg body weight, i.e. close to optimal body weight – 46.31 ± 0.77 kg. Above mentioned allows to consider the dependence of start-ing of a menarche on the indices of body weight and to name the body weight “minimal”, “critical”, “menstrual”. Vichlyaeva [16], Bogdanova [8], Kokolina [21] and oth-ers adhere to such an opinion.

It is known that together with the defi cit in body weight the content of adipose tissue (in which an ex-tragonadal synthesis of estrogens takes place) is de-creased. Pubertal “leap of growth” begins when the quantity of adipose tissue is no less than 16% of total body weight; development of sex hair distribution is on the 19% level; menarche in the 22–24% range [22]. The fi rst menstruation begins with participation of lep-tine – a hormone formed in an adipose tissue. It goes with blood into the hypothalamus, stimulates the re-lease of a gonadoliberine, which promotes the release of luteinizing hormone and pholithropine. The loss of quantity of an adipose tissue during pubescence in the 10–15% range leads to the pubescence delay (PD) [8, 18]. More than 15% body weight loss in girls with the purpose of fi gure correction, quite frequent in female athletes in the entertainment sport disciplines (rhythmic and artistic gymnastics, track-and-fi eld jumping and running), causes the termination of menstruations – the secondary amenorrhea – in completely healthy and continuous menstruating before this girls.

In some months before menarche, there are short--term light monthly appeared pains in stomach in the most girls. The average age for menarche beginning is 12–14 years. Appearance of menarche in girls before the age of 10 and after 15 years of age is without doubts alarming and highly recommended to examine.

It is typical for most girls (after the fi rst menstruation – menarche – a little girl becomes a girl) the 28–30-day duration of menstrual cycle; the phase of menstruation (blood fl ow) usually lasts for 3–7 days. First menstrual cycles are often irregular (in 1.5–3.0 months), anovula-

tory. But in 1.0–1.5 years after menarche the coordi-nation correlations are gradually formed in the system “hypothalamus – hypophisys – ovaries” inherent to the mature reproductive system. The result of this process is the optimal conditions for follicles development, rip-ening of ovum and ovulation. After ovulation the created yellow body in a pubertal-aged girl can be functionally ineffi cient active [23, 24, 25].

The evaluation of sexual development, intensity of the secondary sexual characters is held with analyzing the growth of mammary glands – Ма, pilosis on the pu-bis – Р, pilosis on the axillary crease – Ах, the beginning of the fi rst menstruation – Me, and calculated on the sexual formula using generally accepted abbreviations.

Sexual formula and its generally accepted abbreviations [25]:

Р (from pubis) – pilosis on the pubis;Ах (from axilla – axillary space) – pilosis on the axillary

crease;F (from fades – face) – pilosis on the face;С (from cartillago – cartilages) – growth of the thyroid

cartilage (the Adam’s apple), change of the larynx structure;

V (from vox – voice) – voice mutation;Ма (from mamma – mammary gland) – growth of mam-

mary glands;Me (from menses – menstruation) – the age of begin-

ning of a menarche and characteristics of regularity of an ovarian-menstrual cycle.

The assessment of an intensity of the secon dary sexual characters is held by the gradation marked by Tanner [25]. Each character has its own coeffi cient: the mammary glands – 1.2 balls; pilosis on the pubis – 0.3 balls; axillary pilosis – 0.4 balls; menstruation – 2.1 balls. The following sexual formula is made: Ма + Р + Ах + Me, and summary ball of sexual development is calculated.

Examples:• sexual formula for 12-year-old girl: Ма3Р2Ах1Ме0 =

3.6 + 0.6 + 0.4 + 0 = 4.6 balls – it is about the norm or increase in tempo of sexual development;

• sexual formula for 17-year-old girl: Ма3Р3Ах3Ме2 = 3.6 + 0.9 + 1.2 + 6.3 = 12 balls – it is about the norm;

• sexual formula for 13-year-old girl: Ма1Р0Ах0Ме0 = 1.2 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 1.2 – below the norm, evident delay of sexual development [2].


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The following phases of the sexual development have been defi ned in Table 1.

The character of sexual development and its stages could be determined on the ground of evaluation of de-velopment of the secondary sexual characters.

Evaluation of the secondary sexual characters in girls (according to Tanner) [25]:• Pilosis on the pubis and the axillary crease:

Ах0Р0 – absence of hair on the pubis and the axil-lary space;

АХ1Р1 – singular hair;Ах2Р2 – sparse straight hair in the central areas of

the pubis and the axillary crease;Ах3Р3 – thick curly hair in the whole pubis on the

whole triangular;Ах4Р4 – pilosis on the adult type.

• Characteristics of the menstrual function:Ме0 – absence of the menstruations;Me1 – immature menstrual cycle;Ме2 – regular menstrual cycle.

• Development of the mammary glands:Ма0 – mammary glands do not protrude at chest;Ма1 – areola with the nipple has a single cone pro-

truding at the chest;Ма2 – areola has a big size, nipple is not big

one, gland is increased on the limits (stage of a bud);

Ма3 – complete development of mammary gland, but nipple is not differentiated from areola;

Ма4 – mammary gland like in adult woman, nipple protrudes over areola.

Defi nite sequence of appearance of the secondary sexual characters is the description of evaluation of pu-bescence of girls.

The sequence of pubescence of girls (according to Medvedev and Kulikov, 1999) [19]:

• hyperemia and pigmentation of areola, growth of bones of pelvis (9–10 years of age);

• growth of mammary glands, beginning of pilosis of the pubis (10–11 years of age);

• growth of internal and external genitals, following growth of mammary glands, beginning of sexual pi-losis (10–12 years of age);

• pigmentation of nipples, beginning of menstruation (12–13 years of age);

• ovulation (13–14 years of age);• decrease of voice timbre, acne vulgaris (14–15

years of age);• stoppage of skeleton growth (16–17 years of age).

Although the period of pubescence has been fi nish-ing up to the age of 17–18 years, and female organ-ism can realize genital function, not all of the organism systems, including reproductive one, has achieved the full maturity to that age. It is stated that formation of the hypophysial-ovarian relations and menstrual cycle have not been fi nished before the end of pubertal pe-riod. Kobozeva et al. [19] have determined that the hor-monal status even with ovulatory cycles is consider-ably lower in teenage girls than in pubertal women.

Thus, the characters of incomplete balance of body supporting systems with sexual hormones are evidential in girls at the end of teenager period.

For achieving the harmony in interrelations be-tween links of the system the additional time cell – youth (boys – the age of 17–21 years, girls – the age of 16–20 years) is necessary.

Manifestation of inadequacy between chronologi-cal and biological age in some teenagers is a very im-

Table 1. Phases of the pubescence of girls (according to Tanner) [25]

Phase Girls

I Mammary glands are not developed, nipples are raised.There is no sexual pilosis.

II Mammary glands are swelled, areolas are grown.Hair is sparse, long, weakly pigmented.

III The following growth of mammary glands and areolas.Hair become darker, has coarsened, and spread over the symphysis pubis.

IV Areola and nipple protrude over the mammary glands’ circuit.Sexual pilosis on the female type but not over whole pubis.

V Mammary glands are like in adult woman, areola doesn’t protrude over the gland. Hair covers whole pubis.


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portant feature of pubescence period. In pedagogical practice, particularly during sporting selection and the following preparation, meeting with a child is held us-ing passport age and that’s why the defi nition of con-formance of passport and biological age is one of the crucial questions for sports medicine, pediatrics, age-specifi c physiology and for trainer as well.

As Gurkin [2] underlines, unfortunately, parents, teachers and even physicians are used to focus only on chronological age of teenagers, whereas biological, mental and psychological reactivity is mostly defi ned exactly with biological age [2, 8, 13, 42]. Authors un-derline that the main complication for a physician lies in fact that biological age of girl can be lightly delayed from passport one or be passed ahead in pubertal pe-riod, and a physician has to decide whether such differ-ence is normal or it is some delay or leading in somatic development.

Biological age has surely great importance, as far as it depicts the ontogenetic maturity, working capacity, character of adaptive abilities of teenager (see Fig. 1).

Biological age can be defi ned on the base of dental maturity, development of the secondary sexual charac-ters, and maturity of skeleton (a degree of ossifi cation of wrist, hand and forearm of left hand – radiography, densitometry).

Physiological features are characterized by the ex-pressed instability of mechanisms of an endocrine and vegetative regulation that conditions the lability of so-matic functions. As a result the decrease of endurance for physical loads, increase of the vulnerability to mental factors are very typical for teenage girls. Tobacco smok-ing, alcohol, toxic substances harm girl’s organism much stronger than the organism of adult woman [2, 13, 26].

With reference to girls in pubertal period specialists in the teenage endocrinology [2, 8, 18] have observed that in girls in pubertal period (of the same passport age) particular body length not always goes with the specifi c stage of pubescence (from II to IV). Therefore a physician of any specialty is highly recommended to check the correspondence of an individual biologic age of a girl to her passport age characteristics while evalu-ating physiological maturity.

Due to acceleration of tempo of physical and sexual maturity, when it happens during 2–3 years, the big-ger prevalence of the arterial hypertension, functional abnormalities of internals are observed in girls of that kind as compared to the population.

Abnormalities of the musculoskeletal system are often more evident in the developing of scoliosis, platy-podia and osteochondropathia [2, 9].

Emotional instability, hypercriticism and opposition to adults, demonstrative striving for independence, manifestation of sensivity and staleness to people around are typical for this teenage period. Ignoring the psychological features of teenagers leads the adults to misunderstand what hinders the optimal psychological maturation of girls by possible complications in their health and social communication [2, 8].

Teenage girls are characterized with high emotion-ality and rapid change of behavior. But after the age of 13–14 years psychological processes have emotional-determined direction. Attention, perception and memo-ry reach the highest level.

During the growth and development of an organ-ism the pubertal period in boys is more prolonged as compared to girls’ one, the pubertal leap of growth is strongly pronounced.

Figure 1. Biological age of teenagers – criteria of evaluation

Criteria of evaluation of biological age of teenagers

physiologacal somatical

morphological sexual


– 102 –

Therefore special attention should be paid to all above mentioned, especially to a fact that somatic de-velopment in girls, who take up sports, decelerates in approximately two years from the corresponding indi-ces of other girls of the same age, who are not engaged in any sporting activity [2, 8, 13], due to big physical and mental-emotional loadings.

Sexual development delay (SDD)

SDD should be considered as immaturity or the ab-sence of secondary sexual characteristics at the age of 13–14 years, or the absence of menstruation in 15–16-year-old girls. In 0.5–0.8% of population the fre-quency of SDD increases to 14–33% and this plays im-portant role in the structure of gynaecological diseases in teenagers [8].

Bogdanova considers that special attention must be paid to SDD forms without somatic abnormalities. Underlining the fact that exactly this contingent of girls is recommended by physicians to “wait for” investiga-tion up to the age of 18–20 years, Bogdanova suggests at the same time that such an approach can result in late diagnostics of SDD reasons, stressing that these symptoms should be under control in the period of sex-ual development [8].

Two forms of SDD – central and ovarian genesis – are defi ned. SDD of central genesis is connected with the lack of secretion of gonadotropin by adenohypophy-sis. Tonsillitis, rheumatism, virus infl uenza, pneumonia, tuberculosis and family propensity are the most fre-quent factors of SDD appearance as well as stressful situations, extreme physical loads – in the practice of sports preparation [2, 18, 27].

A delay in sexual development of ovarian genesis is a different form of structural abnormality of ovaries, connected with such genetic defects as severe gonad damage either at the embryonic stage or in earlier post-natal periods. Ovarian insuffi ciency hereditary charac-ter, after parotid and German measles are the SDD appearance factors [8, 16, 28]. Clinical manifestations of above mentioned are amenorrhea, narrowing of size of the pelvis, lagging in skeletal maturity, immaturity of the secondary sexual characters, especially mammary glands, sexual infantilism.

During ovarian genesis, SDD is evident mostly in lagging in biological age from passport one, decreasing of the working capacity of a girl; that is bigger than hav-ing central forms of SDD.

SDD prophylactic is fi ght with infections, wise alter-nation of work and rest, conditioning to the cold. Earlier diagnosis, timely call for a doctor when symptoms of deviation in growth and development are appearedin girls is especially important [2, 16, 20].

Nowadays it is acknowledged that the intensity of oxidation processes in a child organism is higher than in adult one. From the age of 2 years the growth and development of a child slow down. Extension of gen-eral body size is accompanied with the growth of total amount of body oxygen consumption and segregated carbon dioxide gas, and these parameters grow in pro-portion to the age of the child [5, 11].

According to Kolchinskaya et al. [5], Mischenko fi nds out that oxygen consumption signifi cantly rises at the age of 12–13 years in response to the greatest tempo of growth and accumulation of body weight. The tempo of oxygen consumption growth increases in 13–15-year-olds during their pubescence period due to greater intensity of its consumption and at the age of 16–17 years this index decreases.

The demand of pubescent body for oxygen is met by the growing functional respiratory system (FRS): external respiration, blood circulation, oxygen delivery into lungs, alveolus, blood transportation of oxygen to tissues, and forming the mechanisms that regulate the correspondence between the delivery of the oxygen and its necessity in tissues.

During the pubescence period the lungs and chest capacity is being increased, the forth of respiratory muscles is being enhanced in boys up to the age of 17 years, in girls – up to the age of 13–14 years. Heavy growth of the external respiratory organs in pubertal age leads to a signifi cant change of some functional parameters. At the age of 14 years total lung capacity (TLC) makes ¾ of that typical for adult, residual volume is almost the same as in adult (20–24% TCL). Sexual differences in TCL appear at the age of 10–14 years. In juveniles at 17–18 years of age lung volume and its ratio are the same as in adult [5]. If there is no big difference in the vital capacity of the lungs (VCL) in childhood, sex-related differences are shown at the beginning of pubescence. The lower level of VCL is observed rather in girls and women than in boys and men. Its maximal index is reached up to the age of 25–30 years.

During the growth and development of organism maximal lungs ventilation (MLV), which has reached the parameters of an adult person up to this point of time, is increasing in the pubertal period together with the increase of the reserve of inhalation and reserve


– 103 –

of exhalation. In 14–15-year-old girls for this parameter it is 99–105 ml · min–1, similar to the same parameter in untrained women. However, from the age of 11–12 years MLV becomes lagging in girls as compared to boys. MLV in 14-year-old girls is at the average lower of 18–22 l · min–1 than in boys [5, 29, 30].

Satisfaction in the increased body oxygen demand during the ontogenesis is provided with the develop-ment of FRS and its element – blood circulation system [3, 32].

During the growth and development of a child or a teenager together with the increase in mass and vol-ume of a heart the position in chest and proportions of its parts are being changed, the histological structure of a heart and vessels is being differentiated, the ner-vous regulation of a heart-vessels system is being per-fected. These parameters are the same as compared with body mass of boys and girls, the absolute indices of weight of a heart in boys are bigger than in girls. The thickness of a heart muscular wall is increased up to the age of 14 years [33].

With the age the absolute heart volume increases, while the relative one (comparing to body weight) – decreases. Relative indices of a heart in children (as compared to body weight) are bigger than in adults, and made up to 0,63–0,80% of body weight, in adult organ-ism – 0,48–0,52%.

In the early years of life heart weight in boys is higher than in girls. At the age of 12–13 years, the period of intensifi ed growth of heart has come in girls and its weight becomes higher than in boys. Up to the age of 16 years heart weight in girls (193 g) again falls behind from boys’ one [6]. In boys and girls of 15–16 years of age, heart weight is the same as in adults (220–300 g in men, 180–220 g in women). Heart volume of 13–14-year-olds is at the average 460 ml; increasing with the age it reaches 666 ml in 19-year--olds [5, 34].

First of all, more frequent and less regular rhythm of heartbeats is among the functional features of the teen-ager heart. Gelman and Braun [3] observed right fi xed heartbeat in teenager’s organism only in 16% cases. Respiratory arrhythmia is more evident in teenagers comparing to adults.

Normally the heart rate of an adult untrained per-son is 70–75 beats · min–1. In newborn baby it reaches about 140 beats · min–1, and it continues reducing inten-sively during age-specifi c development. Before the age of 8–10 years child has 90–85 beats · min–1, up to the age of 16 years when it is close to the adult heart rate.

Heart rate in girls in the quiescent state is higher of 2–6 beats · min–1 than in boys [4,11, 35].

In the 13 to 20 age bracket the maximal oxygen vol-ume (MOV) is being changed to a little: at the age of 12 years it is at the average of 4,04 l · min–1 with some individual variations from 2.9 to 5.3 l · min–1; in 14 years of age – 4.8 l · min–1 (3.7–5.7 l · min –1); at the age of 16 years – 4.6 l · min –1 (3.4–6.7 l · min –1); in the 20 to 30 age bracket – 4.6 l · min –1 (3.5–5.4 l · min –1) [5, 29].

MOV in girls, which is being increased rather evenly up to the age of 10 years, grows intensively from the age of 11 years, reaching the maximum at the age of 13 years. Systolic heart volume in 12-year-old girls is 52.3 ± 2.576 ml, expressed growth of this index is ob-served only up to the age of 11 years (in 10-year-olds it reaches the level of 43.19 ± 1.627 ml; at the age of 11 years – 48.8 ± 2.057 ml). Mischenko [29] notices that the biggest growth of systolic volume is observed in the period between 13–14 years of age. At the age of 12 years it is 57.0 ± 1.8 ml (44–67 ml), at the age of 14 years – 70.3 ± 2.1 ml (64–70 ml), in the period of 16–17 years — it is close to a volume of an adult person.

Arterial pressure in girls and boys up to the age of 16–18 years is almost the same as in adults. Pulse pressure in 15-year-old girls is lower than in boys of the same age, and it is accordingly 47.84 and 51.15 mm m.c. [15].

Age-related increase of MOV is generally linked with the necessity for satisfaction of growing total oxygen need and decrease in the intensity of blood circulation – with the reduction of oxygen consumption intensity [5, 34, 36].

The respiratory function of blood is known as pro-viding with hemoglobin. It happens due to its active surface connected with the size, form and quantity of erythrocytes in blood, ability of hemoglobin to transport oxygen that depends on the oxygen partial pressure (рО2) in blood, its temperature and partial pressure of carbon-dioxide gas (рСО2) infl uencing the affi nity of he-moglobin to oxygen.

The quantity of hemoglobin per 1 kg of body weight in the girls at the age of 11–12 years and boys aged of 14–15 years is lower than in adults. Calculated [37] quantity of hemoglobin per 1 kg of body weight in girls at the age of 10–11 years is lower than in boys of the same age. The quantity of erythrocytes and hemoglo-bin concentration in blood is higher in boys from the age of 5 up to 19 years, but together with the age these differences become less evident. As the investigations of Kolchinskaya have shown [5, 34], the oxygen capac-


– 104 –

ity of blood due to the lower hemoglobin concentration in it is lower in children than in adults. In 8–11-year-olds it varies from 17 to 18% (turns) [7, 29, 38].

At the end of pubertal period the quantity of hemo-globin and erythrocytes reaches the lowest norm limits for healthy adult. In pubescence there is a direct corre-lation between the hemoglobin concentration in blood and the level of physical development of a man.

The defi nition of functional changes, taking place in teenage girls’ organism while doing physical loads, is covered in relatively small number of investigations [39, 40].

Working capacity of girls depends mainly on their physical development. There is a line of formation of motor abilities, which are dissimilar in girls and boys in different age periods. An active growth of motor abili-ties happens in the period coming before pubescence [5, 47, 19]. Motor activity and motor abilities of children and teenagers are tightly connected with the degree of their biological maturity. Especially it concerns the qua-lity of force and endurance.

Muscle strength is among the indices of physical growth in development in which bone and muscle sys-tem formation plays great role. It is determined that the greatest growth of strength in various muscle groups in girls is at the age of 10–12 years, and boys at the age of 13–14 years. Muscle strength increases with the years of age.

With the age of 11–12 years, girls become more endurable for dynamic work and static efforts. Up to 14 years of age muscle endurance in teenage girls is 50–70% and until 16 years of age it increases to about 80% of adult women’s endurance. In the 18–20 age bracket the tempo of growth in muscle endurance are slowed down [41, 42].

The quality of rapidity (speed) of movement is con-siderably increased in children from 4–5 years of age and between 13–14 years it reaches the level of adult – 0.11–0.25 c [41, 50]. Organism’s growth goes to-gether with the increase in speed of single movements. In 13–14-year-olds it is approximate to the level of adult (!), and it reduces in 16–17-year-olds. Some en-hancement of speed qualities is observed up to the age of 20–30 years.

The frequency (tempo) of movements is a very (!) important component of the rapidity. The maximal ran-dom frequency of movements in 13–14-year-old girls is higher than in boys. The growth in frequency of move-ments slows down up to the age of 15 years, and after reaching the age of 15 years it is almost stopped. The

interrelation in growth of strength and rapidity is full-exhibited in speed-strength exercises (long jumps and high jump) [43, 44].

Dexterity is a motor quality that is characterized by the ability to perform quick, precise and coordinated movements. The greatest growth of dexterity is ob-served in the 7 to 10 age bracket. In 10–12-year-olds it is decreased a little, and in subjects at the age of 16–17 years the indices of motor orientation are on the level similar to adults [45, 46].

Endurance grows later than other abilities. There are aged-specifi c sexual and individual differences of this ability. Intensive growth of endurance to dynamic work has been observed in 11–12-year-old girls; at the age of 17–19 years it and makes 85% of adult women level. Endurance to static and dynamic work is less ex-pressed in girls comparing to boys [4, 11, 47].

Flexibility is being changed unequal in growing organism. Flexibility of spinal column is evidently in-creased in girls from the age of 7 to 12 years of life, and in boys – in the 7 to 14 age bracket. High indices of fl exibility are shown in 14-year-old girls and 15-year-old boys [46].

The development of motor abilities in the ontoge-nesis is characterized with heterochrony – sexual dif-ferences are shown starting with the second childhood period. The formation of motor function up to adult or-ganism level is in progress from the birth till the age of 17–18 years [47, 33, 44].

Systematic training loads enhance and perfect mo-tor abilities. In girls and boys the growth of these abili-ties varies in different age periods.

While investigating the physical working capacity of boys and girls in loads of different intensity, Astrand [37, 40] has shown that the oxygen intake cannot be enhanced to such absolute indices – in teenage girls during muscle activity as compared to teenage boys. The differences in the maximal speed of oxygen intake in girls and boys are determined to be shown until the age of 16 years. At the age of 13–14 years the maxi-mal oxygen consumption (MOC) is lower on 15–20% in girls than in boys, and it is 1.7–2.0 l · min–1; at the age of 15–16 years in girls this index is 2.1–2.3 l · min–1 (35–45% lower than in boys). According to the authors’ data, the MOI intensity is lower in girls than in boys. At the age of 14 years it is 38.8 ± 4.33 ml · min–1 per 1 kg. If we recalculate it for 1 m2 of body surface, the maximal speed of oxygen intake is 12.4 ± 1.28 ml · min–1 per 1 m2

in 14-year-old girls, that differs a little from the indices of boys (14.9 ± 2.33 ml · min–1 per 1 m2).


– 105 –

In teenage girls the index of lungs ventilation upon load at MOC is lower than in boys of the same age. It is 51–56 l · min–1 in 12-year-olds and it is 57–63 l · min–1 in boys of the same age. It is 70–71 l · min–1 in 15-year-old girls and it is 86–90 l · min–1 in boys of the same age. The enhancement of lungs ventilation upon the loads in teenagers is realized mainly due to the acceleration of breath. The respiratory volume is increased in a lower degree [5] and consequently the effi ciency of functions of respiratory system decreases [30].

In 1952 Astrand [37, 40] defi nes the lack of differ-ences in the maximal respiratory volume (MRV) in boys and girls upon the load with MOC. Expressed differ-ences are exhibited since the age of 15 years, when MRV in girls is about 80% of its size in boys. The author also shows that upon the load MRV is correlating not only with the age and sex but also with the length and the surface of body, mass and size of MOC.

Blood circulation system is also characterized with specifi c abilities in teenage girls upon maximal physi-cal loads. In connection with small cardiac output and its functional features the possibilities of enhancing the stroke output in children and teenagers are limited. By its maximal enhancing it is more than 2 times – in teen-agers and 2.5 times – in adults exceeds the indices in the state of rest. The load upon MOC has been shown by Radzievskij [49] to cause considerable increase in heart rate in 14–15-year-old girls, meanwhile the sys-tolic volume was 1.3 times lower than in adults.

The respiration and the blood circulation are less effective in teenager girls as to supplying tissues with the oxygen. The worst ratio between the speeds of oxy-gen intake into lungs, alveolus, and its transportation by arterial and mixed venous blood, and oxygen con-sumption, lower effi ciency of the body oxygen regimes (the ventilation and the hemodynamic equivalents are bigger in girls than in women) are the evidence of it.

Lower level of oxygen consumption upon the load at MOC and huge fi gures of the respiratory rate and the heart rate stipulates smaller fi gures of the oxygen effect of respiratory and heart cycles in teenager girls [5, 48].

Limited possibilities of external respiration, especial-ly blood circulation, limit the enhancing of speed of the oxygen delivery to tissues and stipulate its inadequacy to oxygen intake. Therefore the oxygen tension is con-siderably reduced in the venous blood and tissues in teenagers; hypoxia of load becomes noncompensated

for them in such conditions that results in refusal from work.

The oxygen value of 1 kilogram-meter (kGm) of work at MOC in 14–15-year-old girls is about 32–36% higher than in untrained women.

Conclusions

Taking into account the above mentioned, we could conclude that functional abilities of a person are de-pended on sex and age. To evaluate and compare the indices of the functional state of boys and girls during rest and physical loading is necessary not subject to a passport age but a biological age.

It is important to be aware that teenager period, during which a child becomes a juvenile, is one of the most critical periods in human life. In this period pubes-cence is started, the growth of functions of the endo-crine systems is in progress, the intensifi ed growth and development of all organs and systems is continued, the intensity of metabolism is enhanced, the neurohu-moral regulation of somatic and vegetative functions is formed and considerably rebuilt. The extreme physical and mental infl uences on a teenager organism could result in imbalance in regulation of the vegetative func-tions, changing the effi ciency and economy of all sys-tems’ activity.

Thus, each stage of the age-specifi c growth of a hu-man is considerably defi ned by the previous morph--functional changes and tied with all processes, which currently take place.

Thinking about female sport we should bear in mind that all problems appearing at the prime stage of sports preparation are concerned the girls that have not reached neither social nor physical maturity. They are in the phase when human is being formed as an individual and defi nes his or her life position. A coach plays very important role in the female athlete’s life – he is the highest authority in all that concerns the pri-vate life and sports activity. Track and fi eld career and sometimes the whole life of a female athlete are de-pendent largely on the compatibility of views, human-ity and good relations with the coach – the teacher. Girls practicing athletics draw profi t from professional knowledge, erudition, and such social skills of their coaches as patience with specifi c emotional coloring of female athletes’ behavior.


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ANNOUNCEMENTSINFORMACJE

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MY REVIEW ON THE 6th WORLD AGEING & GENERATIONS CONGRESS

ST. GALLEN, 25–28 AUGUST 2010

MOJA OCENA OBRAD 6. ŚWIATOWEGO KONGRESU STARZENIA SIĘ POKOLEŃ

ST. GALLEN, 25–28 SIERPNIA 2010

Waldemar Makuła*

* PhD, Theory and Methodology of Physical Education Department, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland

The idea of world ageing and generations con-gresses, organized since 2005, is to monitor the real situation of seniors in populations all around the world and to look for new solutions to serve elderly people in their life requirements. That is why the door of the Congress has been opened for the seniors’ representa-tives, researchers, members of organizations, govern-ments and people of business and politics. Dr Jolanta Perek-Białas and the author of this review1 were the representatives from Poland. As in previous years, the participants representing these sectors have stressed that all efforts should be put together to search for help-ful solutions dedicated to seniors.

The 6th World Ageing & Genetations Congress be-gan on 25 August with the solemn dinner at the Einstein Hotel, where the Congress promoters welcomed the invited guests, representing the Congress participants from more than forty countries of the world. During the offi cial beginning of the Congress, which took place on 26 August, Prof. Ilona Kickbush, the initia-tor and organizer of these world meetings, Prof. Ernst Mohr, the president of the University of St. Gallen and Prof. Alexandre Kalache, the head of the WHO Global Programme on Ageing at the Geneva Headquarters in years 1995–2008, presented their speeches.

President Mohr focused on numerous differences in approach towards consumption, which had differenti-

1 Thanks to the courtesy of the Congress Organizers, I have had a great opportunity to take part for the second time in the meeting this year.

ated the members of younger and silver generations, suggesting at the same time that all these dissimilari-ties put together should be regarded not only as an indicator of quality of human life but also as a result of different life experience of both generations. However,

6TH WORLD AGEING & GENERATIONS CONGRESS

August 25-28, 2010University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

Demographic Change

Challenges and Opportunities for Business, Politics and Society

Organised by the World Demographic & Ageing Forum

Spezial Session: Product Development & Design

Waldemar Makuła

– 112 –

in his opinion, currently we had to do with the charac-teristic way of seniors’ consumption, so that the solu-tion of the problem of the reconciling the consumption expectations in ageing and younger generations should be aimed at realizing the needs in this matter of both populations.

Prof. Kickbush accented in her withdrawal the role of common investigating the demographic issues and problems connected with human ageing. From her viewpoint, ageing in essence is not a trouble – the core issue is how the societies deal with human ageing. All these problems are refl ected in past discussion on po-litical agenda. According to Prof. Kickbush the results of the last fi ve congresses had proved hitherto the validity of this approach towards numerous crucial is-sues e.g. ageing, poverty and justice in developed and developing countries. Such a situation, she informed, was caused by the demographic changes ongoing in the world and by shifting the economic world centre – fi -nancial capital had been accumulating in bigger degree in China. These facts inclined to take into consideration how to reconcile the issues of human development and social security, and what social initiatives, including health problems, ought to be undertaken by politicians in this area. Moreover, the intergenerational dialogue seemed to be of great importance.

In the light of above considerations, the problem of an effective measurement related to the occurrences signaled was seen. The proposal of the 6th Congress centered upon four fundamental debate fi elds in which refl ected the basic dilemmas to solve: (1) demography meets development; (2) demography meets geopoli-tics; (3) demography meets dementia; (4) demography meets quality of life & health. In my opinion, such an approach towards constructing the whole Congress is-sues’ skeleton allowed to group in the plenary panels the basic interests areas, introduced by the keynotes and followed by the summary discussions. On the other hand it enabled international participants to present in the special sessions their own research fi ndings or views and to discuss them. Among the lecturers there were such well-known scientists as Prof. Kalache, who spoke in the memory of Professor Robert Butler, one of the best US geriatricians, till his death actively involved into ageing problems the congresses’ collaborator.

In the plenary panel “Demography meets Development”, chaired by Dr. John Beard, the head of the Department of Ageing and Life Course at the WHO in Geneva, the keynote speech was made by sir Richard Jolly, Professor at the University of Sussex. Among the

other key speakers there were Prof. Frances Lund from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in Durban, Dr. Rob Vos from United Nations, Mr. Atanas Keya, representing the government of Kenya. Sir Richard Jolly accented the meaning of the humanistic approach to the seniors’ development, focused not on average but on different situations of ageing people and stated that human de-velopment was not just a slogan. He indicated on the positive role of grandparents in families, and appealed for strengthening the capabilities of the people in silver age, providing suitable and fl exible working conditions for seniors, expanding opportunities and choices for the older people (for instance their active participation in all aspects of social and economic life) as well as protecting the human rights of them. In his opinion, it seemed important to involve the older people in explor-ing new opportunities, while on the other, to prepare human development reports on seniors internationally and for individual countries.

Rob Vos paid attention to the fact that the increas-ing process of ageing had an impact on seniors in-clining them to be permanently active, although they were characterized by smaller labour force and health. Additionally, the depth of these differences depended on the fact, whether they were related to seniors in the developed or developing countries – accordingly to the data eighty percent of the world population had no so-cial security carriage and the low social security car-riage was associated with high age poverty. That was why, in his opinion, the multi-layered old age-income security systems, tailored to any country conditions, should be done.

Atanas Keya presented the situation of Kenyan se-niors and characterized chosen enterprises of Kenyan government addressed to the elderly. Frances Lund drew the problem of ageing people in South Africa in the context of informal economy, defi ned as “the diver-sifi ed set of economic activity enterprises and work-ers that are not regulated and protected” concerned both generations – younger and older. The solution to meet the seniors’ needs in Africa, as Lund proved, was a special policy-based program. Involved into compara-tive study of the occupational health and safety support to poor informal workers (including seniors from Africa and South America) developed in chosen countries, she ensured the audience that the strategy in actions directed at those people should consider the visibility of statistics ratios. In her opinion, the data of compara-tive studies in that fi eld led to recognize the issue of providing human social security as a gradual process,

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in which the fi rst step should concern ensuring the mini-mal level of social coverage, the following ones ought to build the programmes combined. Since everyone in societies should have an access to social guaranties, human health needed to be handled as an extremely important aspect of social protection. In my opinion, the latter statement of the lecturer opens a wide perspec-tive for attending by seniors, such physical culture basic forms as rehabilitation and recreation.

In the further part of this debate, the audience had an opportunity to hear out the lecture of Prof. Robert Vogel2 telecasted from Chicago. The main theses of the Prof. Vogel’s lecture focused on the historical basis for forecasting human longevity and health. The speak-er was concentrated, among others, on the estima-tion of global population in chronological perspective, life expectancy in the selected countries (USA, UK, France, Japan, India, China), secular trends in the daily caloric supply, fi nally estimating the average fi nal height of men who had reached maturity in the period of years 1750–2000. After the lecture, the participants could ask Prof. Vogel about problems they were keen on, and they took that opportunity willingly. The possibility of provid-ing such dialogue with the Nobel Prize laureate given to the Congress participants representing different areas in science, business and politics was not only a splen-dour moment for them, but also a big challenge – they just could confront in the realistic frames their opinions presented with the views of Prof. Vogel.

During the plenary panel “Demography meets Geopolitics”, chaired by Dr. Richard Jackson represent-ing the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C., the leading speakers con-centrated on the global tasks resulting from the prob-lems of possible implications of global demographic trends on the world’s geopolitical situation in this cen-tury. The core problems such as rapid population age-ing with its global consequences, as for example new relations between North-South and East-West parts of the globe in coming decades, should be expected.

Summing up all above mentioned, the speakers of plenary sessions brought up widely spread and in-terconnected topics. While the fi rst session dealt with dilemmas targeted on both the characteristic and differ-ent needs of seniors’ populations in the world, the sec-ond one was aimed at seeking the solutions of those problems, proper for the older people in the frames of

2 Together with Douglas North, he was awarded in the year 1993 the Nobel Prize in Economics.

the world politics, going down to countries, regions and local societies. In this sense one can say not only about distinguishing separate fi elds of important intergenera-tional and interregional dialogue but rather about put-ting them together with respect to those generations and regions.

Meanwhile, the following two plenary Congress panels were centered on challenges dealing with se-niors’ population, illnesses and quality of life and health. The plenary panel “Demography meets Dementia” was conducted by David Shenk, the author of the awarded book entitled The forgetting. Alzheimer’s portrait of an epi demic, who had literary introduced the participants into the core problem of this session. Dr. Daisy Acosta, Chairman of Alzheimer’ Disease International (ADI) in-formed about the data on dementia in the world. She tried to answer the question how the challenges of a growing ageing population and the increasing preva-lence of dementia could be confronted. According to the worldwide prognoses showing the actual range of dementia in the world (36 million people in the year 2010) would be increasing in coming decades (66 mil-lion people in the year 2030 and 115 million people in the year 2050).

Prof. Christoph Hock, representing the Medical Faculty at the University of Zurich, described an in-teresting portrait of biological factors of dementia. According to the amyloid cascade hypothesis present-ed by him the illness changes lead biologically to syn-aptic disfunction and then to the progress of dementia. However, as Prof. Hock stated, healthy lifestyle played a role of a big importance in protecting dementia, be-cause it help to keep a very active defense system protecting patients during their life. Prof. Alastair Gray, director of the Health Economic Research Centre in the Department of Public Health at the University of Oxford showed the data relating to healthcare system fi nancial costs, including the costs of dementia in Europe. Taking into account the range of dementia in comparison to other severe diseases and the costs of healthcare sys-tem in its specifi ed sectors, the author proved that in a case of dementia those costs were too low than in other analyzed examples, although there were not any rational foundations alerting that reduction of health-care system economic costs was necessary. Dr. Steve Romano, when analyzing the situation of American seniors at the age of 65 and above with Alzheimer’s disease, paid attention to the fact that therapy of people with dementia was more suitable to the symptoms of the disease.

Waldemar Makuła

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The plenary session: “Demography meets Quality of Life & Health” was conducted by Dr. Albert Jovell, representing the Royal Academy of Medicine of Catalonia. Prof. Janet McElhaney from the University of British Columbia concentrated her interest on the issues of seniors’ health and physical condition, seen from the perspective of previous decades (starting with 1980s) and connected with preventive actions, in which physical activity of seniors with different health status and functional possibilities played a very impor-tant role. As she stressed, to measure the level of well-being of healthy and disabled seniors a clinical frailty scale could be helpful. Physical exercises should be adjusted to seniors’ frailty. To protect seniors against dynamic frailty she recommended health-related exer-cises, adapted to their needs and provided as well as good nursing, when necessary. As important factor in the fundamental actions of care, she also mentioned the importance of taking responsibility for elderly by their surroundings.

Prof. Myron Levin from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital spoke about pain and its debilitating consequences. Prof. Hans Dirk-Henke, a scientist of economy at the Technical University of Berlin, presented an interest-ing view concerning healthcare system changes in the contemporary world. His proposal related to the idea that the social policy provided in the distinguished sec-tors of healthcare system demanded to be changed into health politics covering all human life fi elds. Prof. Desmond O’Neil, a geriatrician and stroke physician at Trinity College in Dublin indicated on the need for treat-ing the care of seniors in the aspect of human rights. In this context he reminded the main proposals of Madrid Action Plan, including such areas of its usefulness in geriatrics as, for instance, seniors’ nursing, prime care, geriatric medicine or old age psychiatry. Finally, while her lecture ending this session, Dr. Theresa Stutz Steiger paid attention to health literacy concerning the leading issues in that debate.

While analyzing the contents of these two panel sessions, outlined above, it seems, fi rst of all, that the problems undertaken touched crucial aspect of human life, which was human health status. The dilemmas explored during the health panels have inclined me to state the following refl ections:1. The picture of dementia drawn during the debate,

like other neurological diseases, seems to be in a big degree the answer by previous lack of pos-sible responsibility in many basic areas of human

life, which hits mainly the personality of the sensible people.

2. Based on my own work (with multiple sclerosis pa-tients) and research (conducted by myself on se-niors in Poland, Czech Republic and Great Britain in order to be qualifi ed as assistant professor) and experience, I have to fully agree with the opinions, which accented the role of suitable physical exer-cises addressed both to the disabled and healthy seniors. In the fi rst case, the role of suitable exercis-es provided is to improve the treatment processes, taking place in human organism, because of the necessity of biological stimulations of the tissues by adequate movement. In the second one, movement available for seniors enables them to keep good physical and psychological condition, protecting them, in that way, against frailty and diseases.

The Congress plenary panels determined the direc-tions for more specifi ed topics, explored during special sessions. Put together in thematic fi elds, these topics focused the participant’s interest on such problems as:• policy to practice;• seniors’ portraits in media;• the supportive role of business community in se-

niors’ long-term care;• design in products for seniors, advocacy to policy;• demographic ageing and pension system;• retirement and intergenerational solidarity in Central

and Eastern Europe;• seniors’ healthcare reform in USA and chosen

European Union countries;• silver innovation, the role of international organiza-

tions in global ageing; • vaccination in the silver population; • business models for independent life.

The range of the lectures given by the experienced chairs at special sessions was wide and interest-ing (there was even a chance of listening a lecture in Chinese). The participants could attend most of them as well as to visit the exhibition presenting the prod-ucts of leading world fi rms designed especially for seniors (e.g. TV sets with large icons, mobile phones suitable for seniors with hearing problems, gardening tools adapted to the movement possibilities of elderly, kitchen and toilet facilities and the project of a car inte-rior design).

On the last day, the organizers of the 6th World Congress in St. Gallen gave the participants an op-

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portunity to chose one from the list of professionally prepared and given lectures (the set of three master classes):• “Healthcare Challenges in Ageing Society”, led by

Prof. Jean-Pierre Michel from Geneva University; • “Psychological Consequences of Demographic

Change”, led by Prof. Hans-Werner Wahl from University of Heidelberg;

• “Business Implications for Demographic Change: Lessons from the World’s Most Mature Market in Japan”, led by Dr. Florian Kochlbacher, representing German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo.

These lectures were in my opinion the additional scientifi c attraction dedicated by the organizers to these participants who was interested in the thematic fi elds proposed. Given for smaller groups of listeners the classes in medicine, psychology and business di-rected at seniors requirements around the world en-abled the listeners not only to gain the newest world scientifi c data and information on literature from the areas distinguished but also to take part in discussing the problems with the lecturers. These factors have surely enriched the scientifi c background of the master classes listeners.

From my point of view the 6th Congress was a suc-cessful event because of analyzing the core problems of ageing in many basic stages of oldness. Seniors,

in spite of the fact that they are inhabitants of the de-veloped or developing countries, are interested in the conditions concerning their life aspects. Moreover, they really wait for practical solutions and enterprises – such opinions of the participants were offi cially pre-sented at sessions while lasting the Congress. “Ageing is accelerating – in the developed countries it is even described as hyper ageing – and becomes intergenera-tional problem”, as Prof. Kickbush noticed while closing the Congress, it meant the challenge for the following congresses debates.

Bearing in mind thematic fi elds of future meetings, she picked up briefl y such problems as, the explanation of physical and psychological disability, familiarizing with the novelties in the seniors and their families’ care, new approach towards their needs in medicine and pro-health policy, change of health care paradigm even in the developed countries, search for new workplaces for ageing people. She also put forward the developing index of active ageing together with the fact that nowa-days women form the majority of world’s population. All these subjects still require research explorations and analyses, leading to practical solutions. Prof. Kickbush underlining these core points and summing up the debates of the 6th World Ageing and Generations Congress showed the future paths of the forthcoming Congress, truly hoping for meeting the participants in the year 2011.

vol. 20, nr 51 · cracow – wroclaw 2010 issn 1731-0652 committee for rehabilitation, physical...

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