Relationship between Physical Fitness and Match-Play Performance among Youth Netball Players

Physical fitness has long been shown to be crucial for athletes due to its contribution to decrease injury and health risks.In sport, physical fitness is important to increase athletes' ability to perform technical movement and follow coaches' tactical plan in the game.This study aims to investigate the anthropometric, physiological, and match-play performance of netball players and examine the relationship between physical fitness and game characteristics among netball players.Material and Methods: A total of ninety-one female netball players (mean ± SD: age 18.78 ± 5.41 years, height 1.60 ± 0.01 m, and weight 56.13 ± 6.40 kg) participated in this study.Participants underwent standard anthropometry measurement (height, weight, and body mass index) and physical fitness evaluation (standing long jump, 20-meter sprint, agility T-test, sit and reach test, and multistage fitness test).Results: The findings of anthropometric and physical fitness showed that qualified players had significantly superior performance in agility, flexibility, and VO 2 max components than non-qualified players, p < .05.For match-play performance, there was a significant difference in deflection, interception, goal attempts, and the number of goals scored between qualified and non-qualified teams, p < .05.The result of correlation test shows that the interceptions were significantly correlated with the agility component (p < .05),and the goal attempt and the number of goals scored were also significantly correlated with the estimated VO 2 max (p < .05).Conclusions: These findings suggest that a high level of physical fitness can influence successful performance, especially in-game characteristics of netball players.In conclusion, a specific training program that focuses on physical fitness may facilitate athletes to perform superior match-play performance in netball matches.