DIFFERENCES IN THE MOTOR ABILITIES OF FOOTBALL PLAYERS IN RELATION TO THEIR POSITION ON THETEAM

The aim of this study was to determine if there are differences in the motor abilities of players relative to their position on the team. A total of 27 participants of the football club "Car Konstantin" from Nis, male, age 17 +/- 6 months participated in this study. The players were divided into three different groups according to their positions: defense (n=9), midfield (n=9) and attack (n=9). The study examined the differences in the explosive strength of the lower extremities, speed and endurance between the players in relation to their position on the team. In order to carry out the research, the following tests were used: for strength -the countermovement jump, 30m sprint speed and for endurance -the shuttle run test. The obtained results were processed by the T-test for independent samples. After the overall analysis it was shown that there were no statistically significant differences in the motor abilities of the players in relation to their position on the team. The main contribution of this paper is to point to the necessity of monitoring the motor skills of players to be able to respond to the demands of modern football. Future research, which deal with the same topics, can based on this study compare the results obtained on the same tests, or focus on other motor skills.