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Research Article: Anthropometric and Physical Fitness Profile of Adolescent Inter-County Ladies’ Gaelic Football Players

Date Published: 2023-10-11

Abstract:
The aim of this study was to determine the anthropometric and physical fitness profiles of inter-county female Gaelic football players from under-14 to under-18 age levels. A total of 156 athletes (U14, n = 33; U16, n = 64; U18, n = 59) participated in this study. Testing was conducted in a single session for each group and included anthropometric measures of standing and sitting height, weight, estimated age of peak height velocity (PHV), and maturity offset. Physical performance tests included squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ) and drop jump (DJ), 0–5 m and 0–20 m sprint times, pro-agility test, medicine ball chest-pass throw, and YoYo intermittent recovery test level 1 (YoYoIR1). A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to investigate differences between the age groups. Significant differences were identified between age groups for measures of height (p < 0.001, ES = 0.127), body mass (p.002, ES = 0.076), and estimated age of PHV (p < 0.001, ES = 0.612). No significant differences were found between age groups for any of the physical fitness tests except for the YoYoIR1, where a significant difference was found between the U14 and U18 age groups (p.029, ?2p = 0.048). These findings may assist coaches to better understand female athletic development, provide insight on talent identification and development programmes, and provide reference data when working with this cohort so that realistic and attainable training goals can be achieved.

Introduction:
Ladies’ Gaelic football is one of the leading participation sports for females in Ireland [1]. As with other female team sports such as soccer, rugby, and Australian rules football, there has been a substantial increase in participation rates in recent years, with membership rising from 80,000 playing members in 2005 to over 200,000 today [1]. Participation in Gaelic sports is an integral part of children’s and adolescent’s formative years in Ireland [2]. Children from 8 to 12 years of age participate in…

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