Effect of interval training in the performace of mexican juvenile soccer players

Abstract

In order to achieve a good performance in a soccer match, soccer players use aerobic capacity. It has been suggested that such capacity can be trained using Interval Training. The purpose of this research was to compare the performance of juvenile soccer players before and after they practiced interval training. To prove it we assessed the physical performance of 38 juvenile soccer players using Université Montreal track test and Hoff test. Their performance was evaluated before and after the interval training measuring maximal aerobic speed in kilometers per hour, indirect maximum oxygen volume (VO2max) in mm/kg/min, traveled distance in meters and basal heart rate in beats per minute. The juvenile soccer players performance increased significantly at all the variables measured after the interval training (maximal aerobic speed 15.76 ± 0.12 [mean ± 1 standard error] before and 17.08 ± 0.13 after; VO2max 55.17 ± 0.43 before vs 59.78 ± 0.45 after; traveled distance 1461.37 ± 11.20 before vs 1593.79 ± 13.21 after; basal heart rate 71.58 ± 1.14 before vs 67.37 ± 1.07 after; in all the cases p <0.0001). We concluded that the interval training was helpful to improve physical performance in the juvenile soccer players tested.