The main purpose of the master's thesis was to create norms for the evaluation of physical and motor conditions of Slovenian volleyball players aged 14 and 15 years. The goal was to find out whether there are differences in measurements of body dimensions and motor skills among players who were later selected from regional to the national teams and those who were not.
The sample included a total of 356 male and 363 female volleyball players who participated in the Tournament of regional teams in the years from 2015 to 2019. The sample of variables represented three measurements for the assessment of body dimensions and ten measurement tasks for the assessment of motor skills. The data was organized and analyzed using Excel and IBM SPSS Statistics. Norms for evaluating the results were expressed with percentiles, and t-test for independent samples was used to identify differences with respect to later membership in the national team.
Norms can be used as a model for the evaluation of the individual’s potential in specific age category. Norms offer a comparison between an individual and the best 14- and 15-year-olds in Slovenia.
On average, the players who were later selected from the regional to the national teams achieved better results in most measurement tasks than the players who were not. The results showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the groups of regional and national teams in 14-year-old male players, while the differences were found in two tests among 15-year-olds: spike reach and block reach. In 14-year-old female players there were statistically significant differences between the groups in seven measurement tests: body height, standing reach, spike reach, block reach, bend on the bench, throw of a 2 kg heavy medicine ball with both hands in a seated position and squat jump. In 15-year-old female players there were statistically significant differences between groups in six measurement tests: body height, standing reach, spike reach, block reach, squat jump and FitLight with an unknown combination. Wherever there were statistically significant differences between the groups, the members of a national teams achieved better results than members of a regional teams (except for a 15-year-old female players when testing a squat jump).
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