A comparative review of the physical conditioning profiles of male South African amateur and professional soccer players

Abstract

Soccer performance is determined by various physical characteristics, which distinguish professional from amateur players. There is  limited evidence documenting the differentiation between the physical conditioning profiles of amateur and professional South African  soccer players, which is the main thrust of this study. Three professional and two amateur soccer teams (n=145) voluntarily partook in  this cross-sectional study. Participants’ kinanthropometry, concentric isokinetic knee extension and flexion torque profiles, lower limb  explosive muscle power, 40m sprint, flexibility of the hamstring and quadriceps muscle groups, and aerobic capacity were measured  using standard protocols. Significant disparities (p<0.01) were found between the physical and performance characteristics of the  professional and amateur soccer players’ respectively as follows: body mass (73.1±9.8 vs 68.9±8.3kg), muscle mass (31.5±4.4 vs 31.5±4.4kg), isokinetic knee extension strength at 60°/sec-1 (right: 226±38 vs 209.9±39.1Nm; left: 217±36 vs 199.5±32.5 Nm), isokinetic  knee flexion strength at 60°/sec^-1 (right: 162±25 vs 145.4±28Nm; left: 157±25 vs 139.5±25.1Nm), 40m sprint time (5.4±0.2 vs 5.6±0.6 sec),  vertical jump distance (50.2±4.8 vs 41.7±4.6 cm) and aerobic capacity (55.3±3.9 vs 51.7±4.8 ml/kg/min). South African professional male  soccer players are better physically conditioned than their amateur counterparts. Soccer coaches and physical conditioning specialists  should embrace these findings which could form the basis to prescribe enhanced conditioning programmes to improve the physical and  performance characteristics of amateur soccer players comparatively with those of professional players.