Summary:
The main purpose of this study was to examine the performance of the players on offense in relation to the anthropometric characteristics and to highlight possible differences between different playing positions and levels. A secondary aim was to create a profile with the characteristics of the somatotype of aggressive players in every playing position.
The sample consisted of 144 players from the teams that participated in the A1 and A2 National division of Men Volleyball championships. The players were healthy, had playing experience at least five years and were divided into three categories according to their playing position: Spikers, Centres and Opposites. For the calculation of the somatotype the following somatotype measurements were made: height, weight, width of five skinfolds, three girths and two biepicondylar bone breadths. 48 games (2set/game) were observed for the evaluation of the performance of players in the attack according to the five-point scale of Eom & Schutz (1992), where 0 was bad and 4 was excellent performance.
The results led to the following conclusions: between same specialty players, no significant differences in performance were presented. As for the performance in attack, better performance trend was observed in A1 players over the A2, while Central have statistically significant better performance compared to other specialties. The players of A1 had higher body stature, greater body mass, increased lean body mass and less endomorfia against A2 players. The somatotype of Spikers is central, while the somatotype of Central and Opposites is endomorph-ectomorph.
Keywords:
anthropometric characteristics, performance, attack, volleyball