The Effects of Functional Training on Some Biomotor Abilities and Physiological Characteristics in Elite Soccer Players

Soccer game or a soccer match includes functional movements that require complex muscular balance including stopping, walking, jogging, sprint with dribbling, shooting and passing (Eniseler, 1994; Boyle, 2004). Functional training contribute to the different systems of the body through functional exercises performed in different parts of the body (covering the whole body, improving universal motor skills, applied in multiple motion planes) through intensive, short and constantly changing sessions. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of functional training on some physiological and Biomotor Abilities in elite soccer players. Athletes were randomly divided into two groups as Traditional Training Group (TTG) and Functional Training Group (FTG). For eight weeks, TTG athletes were trained five days per week for classical soccer training while FTG athletes were trained with functional training two days a week in addition to this training. Table 4 shows that the effect of pre-test from post-test and present an adjusted post-test mean and determine the difference of the adjusted post-test mean of two groups. According to the ANCOVA results, differences were not found statistically significant (p>0.05). As a result, in this study, which aimed to investigate the effects of functional training on some physiological and bio-motor properties in elite soccer players, it was determined that functional training method had a positive effect on some physiological and bio-motor properties of pre- and post-test values in soccer players, however to determine the difference of the adjusted post-test mean of two groups, ANCOVA results show that differences were not found statistically significant.