STRENGTH AND COORDIANTION IN THE SOCCER KICK

Abstract

Different teaching strategies are often employed for instructing skills to children of different ages. This is attributed to increases in physical performance in conjunction with increments in both strength and motor coordination as children become older (Asmussen & Heeboll-Nielson, 1955, 1955-56). In a paper presented by Miashita and Kanehisa ( 1979), differences in performance at different age levels were speculated to be attributed to varying contributions of strength and motor coordination. The relative contributions of strength and coordination to the performance of various skills by different age levels remains unknown. Previous investigators (Boyer, 1963; Hess, 1965) have indicated that strength is a major factor influencing kicking displacement for high-level adult soccer players, but this relationship has not been investigated for young soccer players. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the relative influence of isokinetic quadracep leg strength to motor coordination (ball angle of vertical projection and lateral deviation, and movement patterns of kicking limb) on maximal horizontal ball displacement for young soccer players.