Abstract
This study aimed to compare the anthropometric and performance parameters between American football players from different high school grades and to compare their physical characteristics to the normative values for U.S. and Japanese players from previous studies. The analysis included 240 grade 10 and 11 American football players. The testing included height, body mass, broad jump, 40-yard dash, and pro-agility shuttle. The analysis was stratified by position: linemen (offensive and defensive), big skill players (fullbacks, tight ends, and linebackers), and skill players (wide receivers, running backs, and defensive backs). The only between-grade difference was body mass for linemen (Cohen’s d>0.6), with no moderate effects for all other measured variables (|d| ≦0.6). No Japanese players were better in both mass and performance measures than U.S. elite high school players. The strength and conditioning program for long-term athlete development should be established for American football players in Japan.
Highlights
Performance parameters between American football players players invited to the National Football League (NFL) tryout and Japanese national from different high school grades and to compare their team candidates revealed that the Japanese players physical characteristics to the normative values for U.S and Japanese players from previous studies
In the evaluation of football talent in developing players, the National Football League (NFL) draft status (McGee and Burkett, 2003) and recruit rankings from high school (Ghigiarelli, 2011) consider greater physical performance to reflect a higher level of playing ability, regardless of the position
Japan has never won against a U.S international team and no Japanese player has ever played in a regular-season game of the in grade 11 scoring higher on physical characteristics and performance parameters than grade 10 players
Summary
We aimed to compare the anthropometric and performance parameters between American football players in grade 10 and 11, and to compare their physical characteristics to the normative values for U.S and Japanese players. The only between-grade difference was body mass for linemen. Grade 11 linemen were heavier than grade 10 linemen but, the average body mass of U.S 2-star offensive linemen was. 129.6 kg (Ghigiarelli, 2011), which was much heavier than the average body mass of our Japanese linemen (102.4 kg in grade 11). American football is a contact sport, and heavier players are generally better in any type of collision. This difference in body mass was likely associated with a greater average height among U.S linemen (1.90 m and 1.95 m for 2-star and 5-star high school offensive linemen, respectively, in Ghigiarelli (2011)) compared to 1.74 m in our study sample
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