Comparative Study On Health-Related Physical Fitness Variables Between Ethiopian Youth Sport Academy And Turunesh Dibaba Sport Training Center U19 Female Football Trainees.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare and contrast health related physical fitness of U-19 female football trainees of both Ethiopian youth sport academy and Turunesh Debaba sport Training center. Some of the variables used for comparison purpose and for which hypotheses were developed are flexibility, muscular endurance, muscular strength, body composition and cardiovascular endurance of the trainees. Standardized equipment and procedures were applied in the measurement of these variables. The quasi-experimental research design was adopted for the study. A total of twenty subjects (ten from each sport academy) were selected using simple random sampling technique. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS. The descriptive statistics were the mean and standard deviation while the inferential statistic was the independent sample “t” test employed to test for significant difference between the mean scores of subjects from the two academies. The level of significance was set at 0.05 with 18 degree of freedom. Findings of the study revealed that significant differences were observed only in cardiovascular endurance whereas no significant differences were observed in flexibility, body composition, muscle strength and muscular endurance. Finally, it is recommended that the Football Federation has to develop strategies to improve the decreasing level of physical fitness among Ethiopian youth sport academy by implementing sound practices of physical activities for trainees. The coach of Ethiopian youth sport academy is advised to work in collaboration with other coaching staff to enhance declining level of cardiovascular endurance of the trainees; shall focus on various exercises and alternate in between different training programs that can improve the trainee’s CVE in proper way and; the coach has to prepare all the sport persons with high level of cardiovascular endurance to excel in sports.