The Effects of Natural Grass Turf on Some Motoric Characteristics of Young Soccer Players

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of soccer training on natural turfs on strength, speed, power and balance characteristics in prepubertal children. Twenty-two male athletes chosen from the 12-13 age group who play soccer in the youth team of an amateur soccer club from Istanbul, Turkey volunteered to participate in our study. In the study, 30 m sprint, Y-balance, standing long jump and vertical jump tests were done as pre- and post-tests. The same training program was assigned to the players, who were separated into two groups. One group was trained on synthetic grass turf (SG) while the other group was trained on natural grass turf (NG) for eight weeks. As a result of the statistical analyses, significant improvements were observed in all parameters between pre-and post-test measurements of both SG and NG groups (p<0.05). When the developmental differences of the groups were examined, statistical improvement was found in the standing long jump parameter in favor of the group that trained on Natural Grass turf (p=0.037). In conclusion, depending on the characteristics of the soccer game, enhancements were observed on both surfaces. However, the challenge effect of natural grass turf was more effective than that of synthetic grass turf on leg strength improvement. It is considered that as a result of continuing their soccer trainings on natural grass turfs, young players can improve their performance and can avoid possible injuries.