THE EFFECT OF OLYMPIC LIFTS ON THE EXPLOSIVE POWER OF ELITE LEVEL FOOTBALL PLAYERS

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of strength and power training on explosive power in elite football players. Methods: In this direction, 20 elite players who played football in a football club A team took part in the research. 10 of the participants were experimental group and 10 of them were the control group. In addition to the technical-tactical training, the players in the experimental group received strength and power training with Olympic lifts, and the technical-tactical training was applied to the players in the control group. Anthropometric measurements (age, height, body weight, BMI, percentage of body fat) and motoric field tests (vertical jump test, standing long jump test, 30 m speed test, agility) for the athletes in the experimental and control groups before and after the 6-week study program test). The data were analysed in IBM SPSS 25.0 program. In the analysis of the data obtained from the applied tests, non-parametric tests were applied, Wilcoxon signed rankings test was used for intra-group comparisons and Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparisons between groups. In statistical analysis, the level of significance was determined as p <0.05. Results: As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that strength and power training applied to the experimental group had a positive effect on body weight, BMI and body fat percentage values from anthropometric measurements, vertical jump test, 30-meter speed test, and zig-zag agility test values from motoric field tests. There was a statistically significant difference between body weight, BMI, vertical jump test, 30-meter speed test and zig-zag agility test between experimental and control groups. Conclusions: According to the findings, it was concluded that the training program was effective in explosive power.