Author/Authors :
Ahmadi, Shirko Department of Physical Education - University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil , Uchida, Marco Carlos Department of Physical Education - University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil , Gutierrez, Gustavo Luiz Department of Physical Education - University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
Abstract :
Background: Sitting volleyball is a Paralympic team sport in which players use their upper limbs and hands to move and slide
across the playing court.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the differences in physical performance tests between themenandwomen
of Brazilian sitting volleyball national team players.
Methods: Fifteen sitting volleyball national team players, (seven men, age = 33.76.2 years; body mass = 88.421.4 kg; body height
= 1.740.36 m) and (eight women, age = 29.68.3 years; body mass = 75.917.1 kg; body height = 1.730.08 m) with similar time
and volume of training, participated in this study. As a physical performance evaluation, five test trials were conducted for each
playerwhich included (1) modified agility t-test (MAT), (2) speed & agility test (SAT), (3) speed & endurance test (SET), (4) seated chest
pass (SCP) and (5) handgrip (HG). Data were analyzed for normality, using Shapiro-Wilk’s test, and then a student t-test was used to
examine the discrepancy of performance tests among the male and female players. Cohen’s effect size (d) was calculated for each
result.
Results: There were statistically significant differences, between themenandwomenof the Brazilian sitting volleyball playerswith
higher values for men in MAT (27 %, P = 0.001), SAT (22 %, P = 0.008), SET (23 %, P = 0.008) and SCP (19 %, P = 0.03) scores.
Conclusions: Results showed that male players had higher scores in the five performance tests, but according to the effect size
calculations there was no significant difference between male players and female players in HG performance.
