Abstract
The relatively less attention in the sports environment has been devoted to relationships between a somatotype and a level of fundamental motor skills that are an essential part of the structure of sport performance. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the degree of dependence between somatotype and the quality of neuromotorics at elite youth football players.
The research group consisted of players from the team Bohemians 1905 (n = 21; x = 1.54 +- 0.25 years) playing the top competition in the Czech Republic. The somatotype was determined according to the method of Carter & Heath (1967), classification by Chytráčková and Kovář (1995).
Neuromotorics was evaluated by Bruininks Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency BOT-2 (Short Form). Average somatotype of players was 2.I - 4.7 to 3.2.
According Chytráčková and Kovář (1995) players were found in categories A (n = 5), B (n = 10) and D (n = 6). 76.2% of players had average degree of neuromotorics, 19% players were above average and 4,8% players had high above average degree of neuromotorics. Subsequent biserial correlations between categories of somatotype and results from BOT-2 showed no significant relationship: rAB = 0.17; rBD = 0.22 and rAD = 0.05.
Detail analysis of individual tests of BOT-2 revealed the only one significant correlation between somatotypes of categories A and D and the performance in the sub-test "manual dexterity" rA, D = 0.62; r2 = 38%, p < 0.05. Players in category A achieved significantly worse results.
The results suggest that the morphological preconditions of players probably have no effect on neuromotoric performance that is correlated to the quality of soccer players. Since, most players were located in the zone of neuromotoric average performance, we believe that the development of fundamental motor skills should be included in the training process.