Abstract
The purpose of the study was to determine differences in the ball's velocity after the instep kick between two young elite national teams and differences in kicking speed with respect to the preferred lower limb. The monitored groups consisted soccer teams in U19 category (Czech Republic national team (Team 1): n = 21, age = 18.8 +- 0.2 years, body height = 184.4 +- 6.1 cm, body weight = 77.5 +- 6.8 kg) and Slovak Republic national team (Team 2): (n = 18, age = 18.7 +- 0.3 years, body height = 183.9 +- 6.4 cm, body weight = 76.8 +- 8.1 kg) players.
The ball's velocity was recorded using a Stalker ATS radar gun.Analysis of variance revealed a significant difference between the monitored teams (F1,74 = 5.37, p 0.05). The team 1 achieved average shooting speed of 114.24 +- 4.57 km.h-1 in the preferred leg kick and 101.90 +- 5.80 km.h-1 in the non-preferred leg kick.
The team 2 achieved average shooting speed 115.33 +- 4.50 km.h-1 in kicking with the preferred leg and 106.44 +- 6.36 km.h-1 in kicking with the non-preferred leg. We recorded a significant difference in kicking performance between the monitored national teams.
A greater difference was revealed in the non-preferred leg, when also higher variability was found in comparison to the preferred leg.