Comparison of Eye Foot Coordination among Offensive and Defensive Football Player at Hyderabad

Abstract

To measure variables were height, weight, fat, muscle mass, testosterone, 10m sprint, agility, counter movement jump, peripheral awareness, Eye-Foot coordination, passing skill, dribbling skill and on-the-ball skills (performance time and passing accuracy) in soccer-specific laboratory test. A significant main effect by age was found in all measured variables except in fat, in peripheral awareness and in passing accuracy. In discriminate analysis 63.9% (λ = 0.603, F = 4.600, p < 0.01) of the players were classified correctly based on physical fitness and general perceptual motor skills into three ability groups originally classified with performance time in soccer-specific laboratory test. Correlation co-efficient analysis with-in age groups revealed that variables associated with performance time in soccer-specific laboratory test were peripheral awareness (r = 0.72, p < 0.01) in defensive skill (r = 0.73, p < 0.01) and passing skill (r = 0.73, p < 0.01).

 Corresponding relationships with passing accuracy were weight (r = 0.59, p < 0.05), fat (r = 0.66, p < 0.05), 10m sprint (r = 0.71, p < 0.01) and countermovement jump (r = -0.64, p < 0.05) in Group-I; Eye-Foot coordination (r = 0.63, p < 0.05) in 14-year- olds. The relationship between soccer-specific anticipation time and performance time in soccer- specific laboratory test was significant only in the group-II (r = 0.76, p < 0.01). To conclude, on-the-ball skill performance in soccer-specific laboratory test improved with age and it seemed that soccer-specific perceptual skills became more and general perceptual motor skills less important with age in soccer-specific test.