Introduction: Volleyball is one of the most popular female sports in the world. It is a sport that consists of complex, fast movements, and a high injury incidence that is most frequent in adolescent female volleyball players. The FIFA 11+ program is proven to efficiently lower the incidence of injuries among youth athletes and has been efficient in improving different areas of physical performance in the population of youth soccer and basketball players. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine how warming up with the FIFA 11+ program affects the physical performance of young volleyball players compared to the group that performed a standard warm-up routine. We were interested in the impact on balance, vertical jump, and speed of running with change of direction. Methods: The intervention group included 19 test subjects; the control group included 23 subjects. In both groups the subjects were between 12 and 18 years old. The intervention group performed the FIFA 11+ program as a warm-up for 12 weeks, the control group was using a regular volleyball warm-up routine. We measured balance with the Y balance test, the vertical jump height of the volleyball spike approach jump and a static block jump with a Vertec device, and the speed of change-of-direction and acceleration test. The measurements were taken before and after the 12-week intervention period. Results: We have found statistically significant differences in the intervention group after the 12 week intervention in all variables except the anterior foot reach of the Y balance test. The only statistically and clinically significant difference between the groups was the change of direction and acceleration variable (p=0,04). We approached statistical significance in the intervention group in the volleyball spike approach (p=0,052), where the confidence interval included statistically significant and insignificant results. Statistical significance was also approached for the postero-lateral component of the Y test on the dominant limb (p = 0,09), where we recorded statistically significant differences within the intervention (p <0,001) and control group (p = 0,0014). Statistically significant differences within both groups were also observed in the postero-lateral component of the Y test on the non-dominant limb and in the postero-medial direction on the dominant limb. Discussion and conclusion: Statistically significant difference in the speed of sprint with change of direction could be due to exercises targeting improvement in sprints and change of direction technique and lower limb muscle strengthening exercises in the FIFA 11+ warm-up routine. It is possible the differences between the two groups exist, but we have not been able to prove them due to a too small sample size and too wide confidence intervals. Future studies should include more subjects and examine long-term whole-season effect of the program on the players' physical fitness as well as the effect of the program on movement techniques, which is the program's primary goal.
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