RESEARCH ARTICLE
Water Polo Performance Classification Based on the Functional Test for Agility Performance: A Long-Term Training Tool
Guilherme Tucher1, *, Silvio de Cássio Costa Telles2, Ricardo Gomes Cabral3, Nuno Domingos Garrido4, Flávio Antônio de Souza Castro5
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2021Volume: 14
First Page: 132
Last Page: 136
Publisher ID: TOSSJ-14-132
DOI: 10.2174/1875399X02114010132
Article History:
Received Date: 8/4/2021Revision Received Date: 14/7/2021
Acceptance Date: 29/9/2021
Electronic publication date: 16/12/2021
Collection year: 2021
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Water polo is an open-skilled team sport in which agility is important.
Objective:
This study aimed to propose a water polo player classification based on the Functional Test for Agility Performance.
Methods:
A total of 78 male water polo players of different competition levels (7.7% regional, 52.5% national and 39.7% international), years of training (6.7 ± 4.5; 2-25 years), weekly training frequency (6.1 ± 2.1; 2-12) and age (18.1 ± 4.3; 12-36) were evaluated in the Functional Test for Agility Performance. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis was used in five levels to classify water polo player performance.
Results:
The players were classified based on the Functional Test for Agility Performance as excellent (≤ 3.22 s), very good (3.23-4.48 s); good (4.49-4.76 s); under development (4.77-5.11 s) and learning (≥ 5.12 s). Age, years of training, and weekly training frequency showed a decreasing trend from Gr1 to Gr4. Athletes at the international level ranked primarily in the best performing groups (Gr1 and Gr2, n = 30), the ones at the national level in the intermediate groups (Gr2, Gr3 and Gr4; n = 41), with a higher concentration in Gr2, and those at regional level mainly in Gr4 (n = 4).
Conclusion:
This classification proposal is expected to be useful as a tool to evaluate the training of athletes of different competition levels as well as to follow up on water polo athletes in long-term training.
