Impact of functional exercises on physical endurance in adolescents aged 12-14 years
Abstract
This research adopts a quantitative approach, with the objective of measuring and analyzing the impact of a functional exercise program on the physical endurance of adolescent soccer players. A field-based pre-experimental design was employed, characterized by the evaluation of a single group before and after the implementation of the intervention, within their natural training environment. For this purpose, a sample of 32 students belonging to the soccer club of the institution, aged between 12 and 14 years, was used. Data collection was carried out using the YO-YO test following the internationally established protocol. After the initial assessment, a 12-week training plan was designed and implemented in two 60-minute sessions per week, which demonstrated an average increase of 262.5 meters in the distance covered between the pre-test (M = 1196.25 m) and the post-test (M = 1458.75 m). This finding was supported by a paired-samples t-test, which yielded a t-value of t(32) = -18.015 with a significance level of p < 0.001, indicating that the observed difference is not attributable to chance. Additionally, the strong correlation (r = 0.931) between both measurements suggests that the intervention generated a systematic improvement in the participants, beyond individual variations
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