Quantitative comparison between male and female soccer players motor performance

In recent years, the interest in women's soccer has risen considerably. Has thus became clear the need to develop specific training programs to improve physical performance of young female players. The aim of the study is to quantitatively compare male and female soccer players motor performance, to develop training programs specific for female players. One hundred-thirty-one male athletes and eighty female athletes were assessed at the same timepoint (T0) by means of Riablo™ medical device (CoRehab, Rovereto (TN), Italy). The tests included were a stability test (ST) (two-leg and one-leg), countermovement jump test (CMJ) (two-leg and oneleg), plyometric jumps (PJ), parkour test (PK) (one-leg) and quick feet test (QF). The comparisons were performed throught the unpaired samples t-test (p<0.003 (0.05/18) after a Bonferroni correction). The results showed that the female group obtained better results in the ST. The CMJ and PK performance, instead, are higher in the male group rather than in the female one. For the PJ and the QF test, instead, no significant differences are shown. This study has tried to find out a test battery reliable for the comparison between male and female motor performance. As the differences in the performance are in the ST, CMJ and PK tests, these three tests are fundamental to assess the dissimilarities between sexes. Anyway, further studies should analyze also the technical and tactical differences to develop more specific training programs.