Team sport

The effectiveness of young football players’ athletic training is determined by the interaction of physical, technical, tactical, theoretical, integrated, and psychological components. In team sports, communicative and organizational inclinations are of particular importance as psychological prerequisites for effective interaction and the realization of leadership potential. Purpose. To identify and compare the age-related characteristics of communicative and organizational inclinations in young football players and to determine their role in the implementation of leadership functions in team activities. Materials and methods. To achieve the aim of the study, an analysis was conducted analysis of scientific and methodological literature, comparison, psychological assessment using the «Assessment of Communicative and Organizational Inclinations» by V. V. Sinyavskyi and B. O. Fedorishyn, and methods of mathematical statistics, including the Kruskal–Wallis test. The study involved three groups of football players (n=108): aged 9–10 (n=33), 13–14 (n=37), and 16–17 years (n=38) from Children and Youth Sports Schools in Kyiv.Results. Significant individual variability in the indicators was established. Communicative inclinations were found to be more developed than organizational inclinations. Their mean values were 3.00±1.58, 2.92±1.40, and 3.21±1.45 points, respectively, across the three age groups, while organizational inclinations were 2.03±1.33, 2.24±1.42, and 2.34±1.38 points. The oldest group demonstrated a higher proportion of athletes with high and very high levels of communicative inclinations, whereas a low level predominated in organizational inclinations across all age groups. No statistically significant age-related differences were found in communicative (H=0.75; p=0.69) or organizational inclinations (H=1.11; p=0.57). Conclusions. Communicative and organizational inclinations are important psychological prerequisites, but not direct indicators, of leadership function implementation. The communicative component creates prerequisites for information, motivational, mediating, and representative functions, while the organizational component contributes to planning, coordination, and responsibility-taking. The findings support the need for targeted development of these characteristics and the application of distributed leadership principles.

Background School-aged children that experience social anxiety and have difficulty with interactions among peers can create significant challenges to their development in terms of both psychology and behavior. A team sport such as volleyball provides a common setting that naturally includes all aspects of social interaction (communication, cooperation, role coordination, etc.) and shared goals which is essential to improve the child’s confidence in interacting socially and abilities to interact socially with peers. Objective This research is an examination of the effect that a 12-week collective volleyball cooperative tactical training program will have on social anxiety and peer interaction in children (8–12). Methods A sample of 80 healthy school-age children was obtained via two methods of campus based, voluntary and/or open recruitment. These children were then randomly assigned to either an experimental intervention group ( n = 40) or an active control group receiving standard physical education ( n = 40). For 12 consecutive weeks, participants in the experimental group engaged in a type of volleyball cooperative tactical team training that occurred on 3 days each week at 1 h per day. During this time the participants in the control group engaged in standard physical education classes of matched frequency and duration. Social anxiety was measured by use of the Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SASC); SASC measures include total social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and social avoidance/distress. Participant peer interaction was evaluated using a study-specific 25-item peer-interaction questionnaire covering interaction initiative, peer acceptance, interaction coordination, interaction openness, and conflict resolution ability. Data collection occurred prior to, as well as subsequent to, the intervention. Statistical analyses were conducted utilizing SPSS version 26.0 software. A 2 × 2 mixed-design ANOVA was conducted to examine Group × Time interaction effects, with group (intervention vs. control) as the between-subjects factor and time (pre-intervention vs. post-intervention) as the within-subject factor. Effect sizes were reported using partial eta squared ( η 2 p ), and post hoc comparisons were performed when significant interactions were identified. Results Group × Time Interaction Effects from a mixed-design ANOVA were found to be statistically significant for both of the outcomes (social anxiety and peer interaction) of this study. Children participating in an intervention that included an instructional program using the Collective Volleyball Cooperative Tactical Training Model showed significantly greater improvement than did those in the Control Condition in reducing their level of social anxiety as well as improving their peer interaction abilities over the course of the 12-weeks. Although we found a statistically-significant improvement in both children’s social anxiety, and their peer interaction skills through a 12-week program, there is no data available for us to understand if those positive results will continue into the future because we did not assess children at later points in time. Thus, future researchers are encouraged to consider extended assessment periods as part of their study designs to determine how long such interventions have an impact. Secondly, as a feasibility study in a controlled environment showed promise for implementation of cooperative tactical volleyball programs, there may be barriers to successful implementation in regular school settings such as lack of facilities, class size and teacher workload. Future research is needed to examine how cooperative tactical volleyball programs can be adapted to encompass large groups of students and incorporated into routine physical education curriculum. Furthermore, although the intervention showed feasibility under controlled conditions, implementation in regular school settings may face practical challenges, including limited facilities, larger class sizes, and teacher workload. Future studies should examine how cooperative volleyball tactical training can be adapted for broader school-based implementation. Conclusion Collective Volleyball Cooperative Tactical Training is an effective method for reducing social anxiety and improving the ability of school aged children to interact with peers. The program offers a viable, school-based model for integrating sport skills acquisition (training) and psychosocial growth through physical activity.

Low energy availability (LEA) and disordered eating (DE) are important health concerns in female athletes, yet their occurrence and co-occurrence in team-sport contexts, particularly volleyball, remain underexplored. This cross-sectional online survey study examined the proportions of athletes classified as being at risk of LEA and DE overall and across competition levels, and assessed the co-occurrence between the two risk classifications in female volleyball players in Türkiye, using the Low Energy Availability in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q) and Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26). It also examined correlations between EAT-26 total score and LEAF-Q total and domain scores. A total of 213 athletes, recruited via non-probability convenience sampling, completed the LEAF-Q and EAT-26 to assess LEA risk and DE risk, respectively. In this sample, 33.3% of athletes were classified as being at risk of LEA, with no difference across competition levels ( p = 0.825). A total of 17.4% were classified as being at risk of DE, with variation across competition levels and the highest proportion among Turkish Women’s Volleyball Second League athletes ( p = 0.034). LEA risk and DE risk co-occurred in 10.3% of the sample, and DE risk was associated with higher odds of LEA risk (unadjusted OR = 3.80, 95% CI: 1.82–7.92). EAT-26 total score was positively correlated with LEAF-Q total and gastrointestinal function scores ( p < 0.001) and injury history score ( p = 0.004), but not menstrual function score ( p = 0.133). These results suggest that LEA risk was commonly identified in this sample, DE risk was comparatively less common, and their co-occurrence was only partial, highlighting the value of screening for both risks rather than assuming one from the other.

در دسترس بودن پایین انرژی (LEA) و اختلالات خوردن (DE) از نگرانی‌های مهم سلامت در ورزشکاران زن هستند، اما بروز و هم‌زمانی آن‌ها در زمینه‌های ورزش‌های تیمی، به‌ویژه والیبال، کمتر مورد بررسی قرار گرفته است. این مطالعه مقطعی به‌صورت پیمایش آنلاین، نسبت ورزشکارانی را که به‌طور کلی و در سطوح مختلف رقابتی در معرض خطر LEA و DE قرار دارند، بررسی کرده و هم‌زمانی بین این دو طبقه‌بندی خطر را در بازیکنان والیبال زن در ترکیه با استفاده از پرسشنامه Low Energy Availability in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q) و آزمون نگرش‌های خوردن ۲۶ (EAT-26) ارزیابی نمود. همچنین همبستگی بین نمره کل EAT-26 و نمره کل و نمرات حوزه‌های مختلف LEAF-Q را بررسی کرد. در مجموع ۲۱۳ ورزشکار که از طریق نمونه‌گیری در دسترس غیرتصادفی جذب شدند، برای ارزیابی خطر LEA و خطر DE به‌ترتیب، پرسشنامه LEAF-Q و EAT-26 را تکمیل کردند. در این نمونه، ۳۳.۳٪ از ورزشکاران در معرض خطر LEA طبقه‌بندی شدند و تفاوتی در سطوح مختلف رقابتی مشاهده نشد (p = ۰.۸۲۵). در مجموع ۱۷.۴٪ در معرض خطر DE قرار داشتند که این میزان در سطوح رقابتی متفاوت بود و بالاترین نسبت در میان ورزشکاران لیگ دوم والیبال زنان ترکیه مشاهده شد (p = ۰.۰۳۴). خطر LEA و خطر DE در ۱۰.۳٪ از نمونه به‌طور هم‌زمان مشاهده شد و خطر DE با افزایش شانس خطر LEA همراه بود (OR خام = ۳.۸۰، ۹۵٪ CI: ۱.۸۲–۷.۹۲). نمره کل EAT-26 با نمره کل LEAF-Q و نمره عملکرد دستگاه گوارش (p < ۰.۰۰۱) و نمره سابقه آسیب‌دیدگی (p = ۰.۰۰۴) همبستگی مثبت داشت، اما با نمره عملکرد قاعدگی همبستگی نداشت (p = ۰.۱۳۳). این نتایج نشان می‌دهد که خطر LEA در این نمونه به‌طور شایع شناسایی شد، خطر DE نسبتاً کمتر بود و هم‌زمانی آن‌ها تنها جزئی بود که بر اهمیت غربالگری هر دو خطر به‌جای فرض یکی بر اساس دیگری تأکید می‌کند.