Pre-Season Anthropometric Assessment and Physical Abilities in Costa Rican Soccer Players

The purposes of this study were to describe and compare the status of physical abilities in Costa Rican soccer players at the beginning and end of the pre-season. Two first-division and two second-division Costa Rican soccer teams (n = 113 players) were evaluated for the variables of age, height (descriptive variables), weight, fat percentage, body mass index, jump versus movement and maximum aerobic speed, and maximum oxygen consumption was estimated with the 30-15 Test. One-way ANOVAs were carried out for independent groups with the first measurements, in order to obtain differences between the teams, and one-way ANOVAs of repeated measures in order to compare the measurements at different points in the evaluation. In the measurements carried out at the beginning of pre-season, significant differences were found in the variables under study, where one team varied significantly from the other three, except for height. In the post-season measurements, there were significant differences in weight (F = 7,394, p = .014), fat percentage (F = 6,339, p = .023) and jump vs. movement (F = 9,068, p = .007) for the first-division team, and in fat percentage (F = 8,263, p = .010) for the seconddivision team. The differences found between the teams are probably due to the young age of the team with lower scores, whereas the pre-season period of the teams being examined showed an effect on the body composition variables. A decrease in jump vs. movement was observed in the first-division team.