Physical Fitness Profile in Young Elite Female Athletes of Freestyle Wrestling

Abstract

Physical fitness is an important element to succeed in wrestling. The purpose of this study was to examine the physical fitness profile in young elite female athletes of freestyle wrestling. Eighteen girls’ athletes of National freestyle wrestling team requited to participate in the present study (15.2 ± 2.1 years-old). Flexibility of lower and upper limbs, agility, maximal isometric handgrip strength, muscle endurance of abdominal and chest muscles, power of lower limbs and aerobic capacity were evaluated. Descriptive statistics (mean ± standard deviation) and paired t-tests were used to analyze the data. The results of the present study reported no significant differences in agility right and left side as well as in maximal handgrip strength between right and left hand (p>.05). While significant differences were observed in flexibility between right and left hand and in horizontal jumping performance between the measurements with hands on hips and with hands free. More specifically, the right hand reported higher values of flexibility than the left hand, and the horizontal jump with hands free reported higher values than the horizontal jump with hands on hips (p<.05). Furthermore, the performance of young athletes ranged in sit-and-reach test at 30.2 ± 2.3 cm, in push-up test at 13.3 ± 6.1 repetitions, in sit-up test at 73.2 ± 37.2 repetitions and in shuttle run test at 5.5 ± 1.7 stages and 50 ± 14.4 routes. In conclusion, the present study presents “indicative values” for the evaluation of physical fitness in young freestyle wrestlers that can be used for training planning.