THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUCCESS AND SOME PHYSICAL AND TECHNICAL VARIABLES IN THE ELITE WOMEN VOLLEYBALL COMPETITIONS

The aim of this study was to determine the physical and technical variables affecting the success of 8 teams (Turkey, Poland, Germany, Russia, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Serbia, Croatia) in The Final Stage of the Women Volleyball Continental Qualifying Matches for The 2012 London Olympic Games.The match analysis reports of the 15 games played by the teams in The Final Stage of the Women Volleyball Continental Qualifying Matches were taken from the Turkish Volleyball Federation (TVF). Data regarding age, height, weight, spiking height and blocking height of the participants from various teams were obtained from the official web site of The European Volleyball Confederation (CEV). Age, height, weight, spiking height and blocking height values were calculated using “Microsoft Excel” program and graphics were produced. All matches were analyzed using the “Data Volley 2007 Professional 3.4.0” program to evaluate the values for each team for each variable. For each variable an average value was obtained from the data for all matches for each team and was analyzed and graphics produced using the “Microsoft Excel” program. Using the ‘’Spearman’s rho’’ test in the “SPSS 16” program, the relationship between the physical and technical values as well as the physical values and success were analyzed. Levels of significance were set at the p 0.05 and p 0.01. Of the 25 variables whose correlation with success is examined, a high level of meaningful negative correlation was between the teams’ break-point averages (r =-.929 **) and success. In addition, teams service point averages (r =.810 *), the rate of scoring on rebounds (r =.810 *) and excellent service reception rates (r =.881 *) were seen to have a meaningful correlation.As a result, the physical properties of teams were shown to have no significant relationship on their success. It was also observed that excellent service reception, break-point and service point success as well as scoring on rebounds had a direct effect on winning the competition. Also, the significant relationship between the variables is another factor having an indirect effect on winning.