Negative association between quantities of body fat and physical fitness of university football players

The aim of the present study was to assess, analyze and correlate tests of physical abilities (acceleration and maximum speed in 30 m, Balsom agility test and YoYo intermittent test) with anthropometric measures of university football athletes. Twenty athletes were selected from the University of Brasilia football team (20.95 +/- 1.84 years; 71.60 +/- 11.65 kg; 176.85 +/- 7.28 m) in which they participated in a cross-sectional analysis that correlated fat mass (FM), lean mass (LM) and fat-free mass (FFM) by DXA, with the physical capacity tests. The significance level was plotted at 5%. The FM correlated with the initial acceleration (10 m) (p<0.05) and with the YoYo intermittent test (p<0.01); the Balsom correlated with the initial acceleration (10 m) (p<0.05) and with the total acceleration (20 m) (p<0.01). In addition, there was positive correlation of RLM and RFFM with YoYo intermittent test, and negative correlation between RFFM and BAT (p<0.05). Thus, we conclude that the body composition seems to be a determining factor in physical tests of university field football players.