Body composition and peak aerobic power in male international level Hungarian athletes

Physiological swimming test for water polo players in the last twenty years: a systematic review

INTRODUCTION

Swimming represents a crucial capacity for water polo players. Several studies have proposed different protocols to understand the incidence of this capacity on water polo performance and improve the players' swimming assessment. This work aims to provide a systematic review regarding the current status of physiological swimming tests for water polo players with the purpose to furnish a complete framework to coaches and fully exploit recent advances of scientific research to enhance performance assessment and monitoring of the athletes.

EVIDENCE ACQUISITION

PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Science Direct were searched for relevant studies published from January 2000 to January 2021. The study dealt with a specific water test and performed in a horizontal swimming position without ball were included.

EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS

Twenty-three studies met the inclusion criteria. The results indicate the physiological assessment of water polo players might be divided into two areas concerning the swimming evaluation: swimming sprint tests and endurance swimming test. Furthermore, endurance swimming tests may be split into two subgroups: anaerobic-endurance swimming and aerobic-endurance swimming tests. Each of these areas evaluates a specific conditional capacity through swimming protocols based on the players' individual profile and water polo demands.

CONCLUSIONS

In the last years, scientific research has studied the typical ability of each water polo rule and of every athletes' level that represents this sport. The results have oriented the researchers to choose different protocols to evaluate each swimming capacity that characterises a particular phase of the water polo match.

Hormonal Neuroendocrine and Vasoconstrictor Peptide Responses of Ball Game and Cyclic Sport Elite Athletes by Treadmill Test

OBJECTIVE

Our objective was to evaluate complex hormonal response in ball game and cyclic sport elite athletes through an incremental treadmill test, since, so far, variables in experimental procedures have often hampered comparisons of data.

METHODS

We determined anthropometric data, heart rate, maximal oxygen uptake, workload, plasma levels of lactate, adrenaline, noradrenaline, dopamine, cortisol, angiontensinogen and endothelin in control (n = 6), soccer (n = 8), handball (n = 12), kayaking (n = 9) and triathlon (n = 9) groups based on a Bruce protocol through a maximal exercise type of spiroergometric test.

RESULTS

We obtained significant increases for adrenaline, 2.9- and 3.9-fold by comparing the normalized means for soccer players and kayakers and soccer players and triathletes after/before test, respectively. For noradrenaline, we observed an even stronger, three-time significant difference between each type of ball game and cyclic sport activity.

CONCLUSIONS

Exercise related adrenaline and noradrenaline changes were more pronounced than dopamine plasma level changes and revealed an opportunity to differentiate cyclic and ball game activities and control group upon these parameters. Normalization of concentration ratios of the monitored compounds by the corresponding maximal oxygen uptake reflected better the differences in the response level of adrenaline, noradrenaline, dopamine and cortisol.

Relationships between heart rate and physiological parameters of performance in top-level water polo players

The aim of this study was to measure the heart rate (HR) response of eight elite water polo players during the four 7-min quarters of the game and to check for relationships with the physiological parameters of performance ([Formula: see text]O2max, Th1vent, Th2vent). Each athlete performed a [Formula: see text]O2max treadmill test and played a water polo game wearing a heart rate monitor. The game fatigue index was calculated as the ratio of the fourth-quarter HR to the first-quarter HR: HR4/HR1. The results showed a slight decrease in fourth-quarter HR compared with the first quarter, with the mean four-quarter HR equal to 79.9±4.2% of HRmax. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed [Formula: see text]O2max to be the main explanatory factor of game intensity, i.e. game HR expressed in %HRreserve (R=0.88, P<0.01). We observed that higher aerobic capacity resulted in higher game intensity. We also observed a decrease in the playing intensity in the fourth quarter compared with the first, likely due to very high game involvement. We concluded that high aerobic capacity seems necessary to ensure high game intensity in water polo. This suggests that coaches should encourage their athletes to reach a minimum level of [Formula: see text]O2max and that HR monitoring could be of great interest in the control of water polo training sessions.

General anthropometric and specific physical fitness profile of high-level junior water polo players

The aim of this study was to investigate the status and playing position differences in anthropometric measures and specific physical fitness in high-level junior water polo players.

The sample of subjects comprised 110 water polo players (17 to 18 years of age), including one of the world’s best national junior teams for 2010. The subjects were divided according to their playing positions into: Centers (N = 16), Wings (N = 28), perimeter players (Drivers; N = 25), Points (N = 19), and Goalkeepers (N = 18). The variables included body height, body weight, body mass index, arm span, triceps- and subscapular-skinfold. Specific physical fitness tests comprised: four swimming tests, namely: 25m, 100m, 400m and a specific anaerobic 4x50m test (average result achieved in four 50m sprints with a 30 sec pause), vertical body jump (JUMP; maximal vertical jump from the water starting from a water polo defensive position) and a dynamometric power achieved in front crawl swimming (DYN).

ANOVA with post-hoc comparison revealed significant differences between positions for most of the anthropometrics, noting that the Centers were the heaviest and had the highest BMI and subscapular skinfold. The Points achieved the best results in most of the swimming capacities and JUMP test. No significant group differences were found for the 100m and 4x50m tests. The Goalkeepers achieved the lowest results for DYN.

Given the representativeness of the sample of subjects, the results of this study allow specific insights into the physical fitness and anthropometric features of high-level junior water polo players and allow coaches to design a specific training program aimed at achieving the physical fitness results presented for each playing position.

Functional abilities as a predictor of specific motor skills of young water polo players

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of functional abilities on specificmotor skills. A total number of 92 male water polo players (age 12±0.5 years, body height 156.96±22.3 cm, body weight 51.02±33.18 kg) with at least two years’ experience, were enrolled in the study. The investigation protocol consisted of standardized anthropometric measurements, estimation of maximum oxygen uptake, determination of the lung function values, specific swim tests and swim tests with a ball. The factor analysis was used for the estimation of the structure of specific motor skills. The influence of functional abilities on specific motor skills was estimated by regression analysis. Out of 15 correlations in total between the variables of space of functional abilities of water polo players, 6 were significant at the level of 95% (between the variables of aerobic power and lung function) and all of the correlations (15) between the variables of specific motor skills in water polo players were significant at the 99% level. Only one principal component, the General factor of specific motor skills in water polo (GFSWP) was obtained by way of factorization of the tests of specific motor skills, so the GFSWP represents the latent space of specific motor skills as a criterion. The regression analysis showed that functional abilities (as group predictors) (p= 0.00) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (as a separate variable) have a significant influence on GFSWP (the criterion). The results of the study pointed out the impact of functional abilities on specific motor skills of selected young water polo players. This may be important for the selection and effective coaching in the early period of training and can affect the development of more appropriate and specific training programmes for optimal physical fitness preparation in young water polo players.

Características antropométricas, composición corporal y somatotipo en jugadores de élite de waterpolo

Este estudio describe la estructura antropométrica de los mejores jugadores de waterpolo españoles en las categorías júnior y sénior; y en segundo lugar, pretende determinar si existen diferencias antropométricas, en la composición corporal y en el somatotipo entre ambas categorías. La muestra empleada en este estudio fueron 23 jugadores de la selección española de waterpolo, de ellos, 9 jugadores de categoría júnior y 14 sénior. Las diferencias estadísticas más significantes, entre ambas categorías, son en aquellas variables que guardan relación indirecta con los niveles de fuerza y con la experiencia. Los jugadores de la categoría júnior presentan un somatotipo mesomórfico equilibrado, mientras que los jugadores de la categoría sénior presentan un somatotipo endo-mesomórfico.