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THE TRAINING AND DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF THE GREEK WOMEN'S NATIONAL VOLLEYBALL TEAM
S. D. PAPADOPOULOU, Department of Physical Education & Sports Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
S. K. PAPADOPOULOU, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Technological and Educational Institution of Thessaloniki, Greece
A. YIANNAKOS, Department of Physical Education & Sports Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
CH. GALAZOULAS, Department of Physical Education & Sports Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
A. FACHANTIDOU Department of Physical Education & Sports Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Keywords: volleyball, top female athletes, training features demographic features
Abstract
A distinction in volleyball comes as a result of specific physiological, kinesiological, psychological, as well as environmental influences. The purpose of the present study was to record and evaluate the training and demographic features of the Greek women's National volleyball team, in order to identify which of the above factors influence, differentiate and support top female athletes. The study sample involved 18 women athletes, which had mean age 23.43.1 years and were active members of the National volleyball team for on average 4.7 years. The study was conducted by using a special questionnaire concerning the athletes' training and demographic features. The frequency analysis showed that most of the athletes were single and University undergraduates/graduates of the Physical Education and Sports Science Department. Their mean athletic age was 10.6 years and their mean training age 11.4 years. Τhe athletes had competed in the National team on average 4.72.6 years and had 43.036.7 official participations. In addition, all athletes had gone through a pre-national preparatory stage. The place of birth and residence during childhood and adolescence was basically located in Northern Greece. Regarding geographic ranking, the overwhelming majority of athletes was born, raised and lived in urban environment. In conclusion, the training and demographic profile of top Greek women volleyball athletes forms an original database which could provide useful information concerning basic training features, as well as the specific population groups where female volleyball athletes with high potentialities are detected.
Introduction
The history of the Greek Women's National Volleyball Team began in 1996 with most important distinctions the 8th position in the 1991 European Championship in Italy, the 8th position in the 2003 World Championship in Germany and the 9th position in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games in Greece. It is a fact that fans' and athletes' interest is more attracted by high performance and distinction. Top performance in Volleyball (VB) is the result of complex and multidimensional effects. These effects are related to anthropometric, kinetic, psychomental and training factors, with the further involvement of natural and social environment.
The literature review reveals that the demographic structure of a child depends on various factors, i.e. geographical place of birth, geographical location of childhood or adolescence, place of current residence, etc. This results into shaping clearly differentiated social behaviours. These behaviours affect athletic performance in general and in volleyball specifically (Clausen, 1968; Inkeles, 1969). Some demographic factors influence the involvement of VB female athletes with highly competitive VB, while the respective training factors influence their performance (Papadopoulou, 2001).
Athlete's Personal Data
For the selection of athletes various elements are frequently taken into consideration, which are related to social criteria. These social criteria of athletes' selection for the National VB team which concern age, profession and family status, vary significantly among countries (Liskevych, 1976).
The age of top VB female athletes in the international setting is around 20-23 years. Even the worldwide leading teams in the field of women's VB in the '70s, had athletes of similar age (Papadopoulou, 2001). The athletes' age of the two world's best teams was somewhat different. More specifically, the Japanese National Team had female athletes of 18-22 years old, while the respective ex-Soviet Union (ex-USSR) Team had on average the age of 26 years (Liskevych, 1976). The ages of the US National Team athletes, during the '80s and the '90s were 21.6 years (Puhl et al, 1982), 23 years (Fleck et al, 1985), 22.7 years (Carter & Heath, 1990) and 23.7 years (Carter et al, 1994). In any case, the mean age that is recorded in the Olympic Games ranges from 22-23 years (Cherebetiu, 1992). In Greece, the Women's National VB Team in 1996 had an average age of 18.7 years. The adult female athletes had mean age 21.2 years and the adolescents 16.8 years (Geladas & Maridaki, 1996).
There is not much data on the family status and the level of education of top VB female athletes, besides a single older study. According to this study, the family status of the world's leading VB female athletes, differed from country to country, however, they were mostly single. Concerning their education, most of them had followed studies pertaining to sports. Specifically, the majority of female VB athletes from countries with the greatest distinctions, were students or teachers of Physical Education, in principle (Liskevych, 1976).
This is also explained by a study investigating the educational problems that internationally distinguished athletes usually have. In this study in which countries from all over the world were included, it was established that top athletes invested much time and effort in sports. The top athletes were training from their childhood and dedicated their whole lives in sports. The long hours and the super-effort made by the athletes in order to achieve their goal could cause them problems concerning their education, for example bad grades, failure in school class progress, etc. Therefore, many countries sought and found solutions aiming at helping the sports talents to train without being held back in their education. In each country, a different training program addressed to talented athletes was implemented (Hedman, 2000). A similar scheme is also being implemented in Greece with the operation of Sports Facilitation Classes, and the bonus attribution to the good athletes in order to be more easily admitted to the University Departments of Physical Education and Sports Science.
Training features
The most appropriate age for the selection of high level female VB athletes is the age of 10-12 years, because about 8 years of training preparation are required. So, at the age of 18-20, one can have athletes for top level performance (Papadopoulou, 2001). Related studies of Mácek (1988), Bosco (1990) and Cherebetiu (1992), revealed that the learning time of the basic sport's technical fundamentals corresponds to 4-6 years, while the sports tactic as well as the team spirit learning time also corresponds to 4-6 years. The same researchers also agree that the onset age of dealing with VB must be 10-12 years. However, there are contradictory opinions about the timing of selection, that is to say how earlier or later should this selection take place. For example, in the US Men's National Team, one of the best athletes was recruited at the age of 19, but in the previous years he was active in other sports. This had as a result a very good physical condition and athletic infrastructure in general. Thus, his shift to VB was very simple and his progress rapid. This case of course is an exception (Cherebetiu, 1992).
Concerning the athletic age, a related study showed that the majority of the US VB athletes started sports at the age of 6-8 years (Weiss & Knoppers, 1982). It is pinpointed, however, that beginning sports at such young age has as a consequence that top athletes invest many years of their lives in sports, neglecting other important things (Hedman, 2000). Furthermore, concerning the mean training age of the female VB athletes of the Greek National Team, it was found to be 5.6 years (Geladas & Maridaki, 1996), while the respective age of the Α1 National Division female athletes was 12.0 years (Bayios et al, 2006).
Relating to the training load of top female athletes, the data existing is limited. One of the few related studies, reports about the training hours of the US Women's National VB Team, which trained 6-8 hours daily, for 6 days a week (Fleck et al, 1985). Also, the Greek Women's National VB Team trained just 600 hours annually (Bergeles, 1993).
Demographic features
In the international literature there are no data about the place that top female VB athletes were born and raised, in order to investigate whether this affects their involvement with VB. During the year of the first great official distinction of the Greek Women's National VB Team (1991), it is found that the majority of the athletes mostly came from Northern Greece and less from Central Greece, while the seat of the National Team, for the first time in its history, was located in Northern Greece (Thessaloniki), (H.VB.F., 1991). The difference of the Northern Greece athletes eventually lies at the better anthropometric characteristics that they have and which were differentiated due to various environmental influences, such as geographic and climatic conditions, etc. (Papadopoulou, 2001). Most particularly, in a research conducted in Greece, it was found that the adolescent girls from Macedonia (Northern Greece) had greater height, sitting height and arm extension, from those from Crete (Southern Greece). Also, adolescent female athletes living in an urban or semi-urban setting had greater height than those living in a rural environment respectively (Karandaidou, 1992). Therefore, the geographical classification of the place of residence may differentiate some anthropometric features, mostly concerning the body heights and lengths (Papadopoulou, 2001).
It is scientifically documented that the adaptation to geographic and climatic conditions of the various habitats is a major mechanism of evolution of human races and populations. The same is proven also by the observations related to the geographical distribution of the shape of the human body, and mostly of the body height and weight. More explicitly, the larger-in-dimensions individuals are found in populations of colder habitats, while the smaller-in-dimensions individuals are found in populations of warmer areas. The average body height of the various populations decreases from colder to warmer habitats. On the contrary, the populations living in much more colder habitats have always shorter limbs in comparison to those living in much more warmer ones. Also, from the geographical distribution of the trunk index, it is established that the long-limbed populations are more usually found in much more warmer tropical habitats (African and Australian Negros), while the short-limbed populations are to be found in much more cooler arctic areas (Eskimos), (Ackerman, 1959; Lee et al, 1969; Pentzou-Daponte, 1990). However, this climatic relation is very probable to be due to other causes, i.e. race, gender, etc. According to Spuhler (1959), it was found that the long-limbed lean-body populations, due to less water consumption are better adapted to the very dry-warm habitats, than the short-limbed individuals who consume more water. Another research with Japanese subjects also revealed the effect of the environment on their anthropometric features. The Japanese people who during their childhood had immigrated to California, had become taller and with longer limbs, than the respective children who grew up in Japan. This fact was attributed to the better environmental conditions of living of the first group (Greulich, 1976). It is established, then, that an individual's demography influences his/her anthropometry, which is a significant factor of initial selection of athletes with possibilities of distinction in top level VB.
The lack of literature relating to the assessment of top Greek female VB athletes concerning their training and demographic features, led to the investigation of the subject.
The purpose of the present study was to record and evaluate the training and demographic features of the Greek Women's National VB team, in order to identify which of the above factors influence, differentiate and support top female athletes.
Methods
Subjects: The research sample was composed by 18 female athletes of the National VB Team with a mean age of 23.43.1 years. The study considered as National Team (NT) athletes, those who had participated in NT games during the two past years. The athletes competing with the NT had on average 4.72.6 years of participation, while the number of participations was 43.036.7.
Material: The study was conducted by using a special questionnaire which contained questions on the training and demographic profile of the athletes. Although these demographic and social data are frequently coinciding, the research was based on the classification of the National Statistics Service of Greece (HNSS, 1998b) and Siambos (1979), where it is reported that demography deals with the study of the characteristics of an individual, while sociology deals with the relations between individuals. The data collected was organized in three categories: Personal data, residence data and training data of the athlete. The two first categories are classified in the individual's demographic data, according to the classification of Bogue (1969). More explicitly, the items contained in the questionnaire, concerned:
a. Athlete's Personal Data: This category contains age, family status, number of children in the family and educational level (Bogue, 1969).
b. Training data: It contains the onset age of sports involvement (athletic age), the years of dealing with VB (training age), the years of participation in the NT and the number of official NT participations, the months of training per year, the training sessions per week, the hours of training per training session, and the participation in a pre-national preparatory team.
c. Athlete's place of residence: This category contains the city of current residence, the place of birth, as well as the places of residence during childhood and adolescence. It also includes the geographical classification of the places of current residence and residence during childhood and adolescence (Siambos, 1979), which were classified, according to the National Statistics Service of Greece (1998a), as rural, semi-urban and urban.
The questionnaire was completed by the athletes in the presence of the investigators in order to resolve any eventual questions they might have, in the form of an interview. The validity of the questions of this paper was based on the presence of the investigators, which, according to Thomas and Nelson (1990), is the most significant reliability factor of data collected during research with qualitative variables, such as those of this study. The validity of the data was also stemming from the nature of the questions, which did not express any intent, attitude or opinion. This data had by definition a "theoretical" validity and did not require any further validation (Thomas & Nelson, 1990).
Procedure: For the conduct of the study the research team had to go to the athletes' training facilities. Detailed explanations were given concerning the aim of the research procedure and then, after obtaining their consent, the athletes completed the questionnaire in the form of an interview.
Statistical analysis: The data processing was conducted with the use of the statistical program SPSS/PC. More particularly, a descriptive analysis of the variables concerning the training data was performed, as well as a frequencies analysis for checking the percentile frequency of all the other variables.
Results
The training and demographic features of the 18 NT athletes are presented in the Tables 1-3. The average age of the athletes was 23.4+3.1 years. Only two athletes were married (11.1%) with no children. From the total, 7 athletes were students or graduates of the University Department of Physical Education and Sports Science (38.9%), 3 were students in other faculties of the University or Technical Education Colleges (16.7%), 3 were graduates of private educational institutes (16.7%) and 5 had graduated only from High School (27.8%), (Table 1).
Table 1
Frequency distribution and percentile rates of the athletes' personal data
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The training features of the 18 VB female NT athletes are presented in Table 2. All the athletes participated in a pre-national preparatory team.
Table 2
Age and training features
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Related to the demographic features, all the athletes were living in Athens (the capital of Greece) and Thessaloniki (second biggest city), except from one, who lived in Larissa (provincial town). Their place of birth, however, as well as the place where they spent their childhood and adolescence is mostly located in Northern Greece (Macedonia, Thrace) and secondly in Central Greece (Thessaly, Hepirus). Concerning the geographical classification of the residence city, all the athletes were living in an urban environment. Furthermore, the geographical classification of residence area during childhood and adolescence was urban by 77.8% (Table 3).
Table 3
Distribution of frequencies and percentile rates of the athletes' place of residence
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Discussion
Athlete's personal data
The personal data of the athletes showed that the average age of the National Team women was 23.4 years.
The age of the female VB athletes of various National Teams differs in mean values from 18 to 24 years, with prevailing age that of 22-23 years (Liskevych, 1976; Puhl et al, 1982; Fleck et al, 1985; Cherebetiu, 1992; Carter et al, 1994). The Greek NT, therefore, did not differ significantly in terms of age, in relation to world leading teams, and this is considered as a positive element. In any case, the features of female VB NT athletes, concerning age, profession and family status, etc differ significantly among countries (Liskevych, 1976).
The overwhelming majority of our research athletes was single. In the international scene, the family status of the world forces of women's VB differs. Specifically, the Champion Women's NT of Japan was composed only by single athletes, while the Russian NT had 45% single women and 55% married ones, 4 of which were mothers. The rest of the foreign National Teams had also differences as some of them had married women, though most of them involved single athletes (Liskevych, 1976).
The Greek female NT VB athletes had in total a relatively high percentage of higher education (55.6%). In particular the educational level of most athletes was orientated towards Physical Education (38.9%). This result is in line with the limited international literature concerning VB female athletes of previous years. Thus, almost all the Russian athletes of the Champion Women's NT were Physical Education teachers, 80% of the US NT were students and most athletes of the world's best teams were students or teachers of Physical Education mostly (Liskevych, 1976).
This education level of top athletes which is oriented towards sports is not just a fortuitous event. Hedman (2000) reports that top athletes dedicate many years in the sport of their choice, at the altar of distinction. This kind of investment in energy and time was frequently causing problems in the field of their education. For that reason, many countries developed an educational system with special programs, which intended to help talented young people to train and, at the same time, receive education. It is a fact that an athlete gets perplexed when it comes to choose to decrease the hours of training or to give up sports or to dedicate less time to school-required homework, in order to respond to his/her educational or athletic obligations. These type of problems are observed in many countries, where various problem-resolution schemes were proposed. The countries that participated in the research were the US, the UK, China, Kenya, Belgium, Sweden, Finland and Russia. In each country a different adapted educational program for talented athletes was implemented (Hedman, 2000). Likewise in Greece, in the context of secondary education, there are Sports Facilitation Classes and, furthermore, the NT athletes receive a special bonus in order to be easily admitted to the University Departments of Physical Education. Therefore, it appears, according to the findings of our research, that also the top female VB athletes in Greece make use of these privileges and afterwards they continue in the field of sports as Physical Education teachers, coaches or sports managers.
Training features
The athletic age of the female VB athletes of this study was 10.6 years, a finding which is in line with the study of Bergeles (1993), who reports the age of 9-12 years as the most appropriate age for initiation to sports. On the contrary, it disagrees with the conclusion of a research conducted with 95 US VB female athletes, where a percentage of 63% reported starting dealing with sports at the age of 6-8 years (Weiss & Knoppers, 1982).
The NT female athletes (23.4 years) had an average training age of 11.4 years, a fact which is supported by studies showing that it is more appropriate to select VB athletes at the age of 10-12 years, because 8-12 years are required for learning the technical-tactical fundamentals of the sport (Mácek, 1988; Bosco, 1990; Cherebetiu, 1992). In the contrary, the foreign athletes who competed in the Greek VB Championship and mostly came from Eastern European countries, had mean age 27.7 years and training age 17.2 years (Papadopoulou et al, 2002), while the Russian Olympic VB Women's Team had respective ages of 25.7 and 15.9 years (Papadopoulou et al, 2005). These differences, in relation to the training age of the Greek NT of the study, may also be due to the older age of all the above foreign athletes. Nevertheless, this fact is one important element which shows the training experience of female athletes in relation to this sport.
Regarding the years of participation of Greek female athletes in the National VB Team (4.7 years), these are considered satisfactory according to the respective data from other world's leading National Teams. On the contrary, in the study's sample, the number of official NT participations, the average value of which is in total 43 participations within five years, is far behind compared to the respective international female athletes, who have 35-40 participations annually (Floros, 2007). This may be due to the fact that the female athletes of the best National Teams, besides the official VB events, which are the Olympic Games, the World Championship and the European Games, also participate in other events as well, such as the Grand Prix, the Mediterranean Games, the Spring Cup, the Balkan Games and various other Tournaments. Consequently, the Greek Team athletes lack a lot behind in competition experiences, which is a point that should be deeply considered, because it contributes to the maximization of their performance.
Top competitive level athletes receive higher training loading due to more training sessions per week and training months per year (Papadopoulou, 2001). Particularly, the study NT trained on average for 10.7 months, 6.6 times a week, 2.2 hours per training session. Comparative data exist only for the US Women's NT, which trained 6-8 hours daily for 6 days a week.
(Fleck et al, 1985). Particularly, the US NT trained in average for 1800 hours annually, while the Greek NT trained 500-600 hours respectively, which means three times less (Fleck et al, 1985; Bergeles, 1993; Balague, 2000). The training of the US NT, one of the world's peak teams, was clearly more than that of the Greek NT, an issue that should eventually occupy those dealing with the women's national team of Greece.
Also, in this study, all top athletes had been members of a pre-national preparatory team. This clearly influenced positively their development that was apparent from the fact that they continued dealing with VB. Furthermore, it ascertains also the fact that top athletes invest many years of their lives in their sport. The athletes of worldwide recognition start dealing with sports from their childhood and when they reach adolescence they have fully dedicated their lives in earning athletic distinctions (Hedman, 2000).
Demographic features
Northern Greece as the place of birth and residence during childhood and adolescence was generally observed to a larger extent among the study athletes. Particularly, the VB NT athletes mostly came from Northern Greece (Macedonia, Thrace) and less from Central Greece (Thessaly, Hepirus). Comparing the NT of our study with the respective NT of 1991, which brought the first great distinction to the Greek Women's volleyball, one can distinguish similarities concerning the origin of the athletes. In particular, the NT of the time was one of the tallest teams in Europe with a low average age. The majority of athletes came from Northern Greece and secondarily from Central Greece (H.VB.F., 1991). This selection of athletes from Northern Greece, beyond their physical and psychomotor skills, is also due to their supremacy referring to the anthropometric features, such as height, which is one of the basic selection criteria of VB top athletes (Papadopoulou, 2001).
From our research it also derives that the NT female athletes lived mostly in Athens, which is a finding in line with the study of Papadopoulou (2001), who established that although top athletes, basically came from Northern Greece and other provincial towns, they played in teams mostly of the Area of Athens and secondarily of the Area of Thessaloniki, where they moved to at an older age for reasons of team-to-team transfer or studies. Furthermore, concerning the geographical classification, the majority of the athletes were born, raised and lived in an urban environment, where there are the best and more teams of the country are located.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the Greek National VB female athletes were basically single and had an educational orientation towards Physical Education. They fell behind in training and competitive experiences as well as training load, according to the respective data that other internationally recognized teams present. Also, the place of birth as well as the place of residence during childhood and adolescence was mainly located in Northern Greece, a fact which influenced their somatometry, giving them characteristics required for playing top VB. Finally, from a geographical point of view, they came from and lived in urban areas, where there is better material plus technical infrastructure and more teams.
The training and demographic profile of the top Greek women volleyball athletes consists an original database, which could provide useful information to volleyball coaches, as well as the Hellenic Volleyball Federation, in the field of basic training characteristics and specific population groups from where female volleyball athletes with distinguishing potentialities come from and possibly should be searched out.
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