A sport-specific training background (SSTB) based on the nature of sport might affect explosive power of upper limbs in athletes (Izquierdo et al., 2002). However, there have been no attempts to study this in young female players from different ball games background. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of sport-specific training background on explosive power of upper limbs in basketball [BP] and volleyball players [VP]. Methods: In the present study, thirty one short-limbed girls (Scelic Index .54.6) of which 11 age-matched control sedentary subjects [SS] (age: 15.00+/-0.52 years, BMI: 21.10+/-2.09, SI: 55.45+/-1.45, sedentary life: 3 years); 10 basketballers (age: 15.60+/-1.34 years, BMI: 22.67+/-3.13, SI: 54.70+/-1.37, SSTB: 3 years) and 10 volleyballers (age: 14.50+/- 0.97 years, BMI: 22.17+/-1.87, SI: 55.29+/-2.12, SSTB: 3 years), performed seated backward overhead ball throw (SBOBT) and seated chest pass throw (SCPT) using a 3-kg rubber medicine ball. All tests were performed for three times but only the best performance was considered. All data were compared using non-parametric test of Kruskal-Wallis and statistical significance was determined using a probability level of P<0.05 Results: Players showed higher performances than sedentary subjects in SBOBT and SCPT. However, we found only a significant difference (P<0.05) in the comparison between BP and SS during SCPT; instead, in SBOBT test, basketballers performance was lower than volleyballers one (P>0.05). Discussion: These results showed that sport-specific training backgrounds affect the seated medicine ball throw performance. Indeed, basketball training background appears to affect much more the explosive power of upper limbs than volleyball training background in SCPT. For these reasons, in agreement with Izquierdo M et al. (2002) we suggest that the magnitude of the sport-related differences in explosive power output by upper limbs may be explained by sport-specific neuromuscular adaptations.
© Copyright 2012 17th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science (ECSS), Bruges, 4. -7. July 2012. Published by Vrije Universiteit Brussel. All rights reserved.