Estudio del conocimiento declarativo en función de la experiencia y de la edad en jugadores jóvenes de voleibol. (Study of declared knowledge according to experience and age in young volleyball players)

Abstract

The cognitive aspect is one of the domains in which the sport performance is based (Janelle y Hillman, 2003). This component is more important in high strategy sports, as the volleyball, so to the uncertainty in which the players are unrolled in a real ga- me environment (Thomas, 1994). The purpose of this study was to know the declarative knowledge in youth volleyball players and the experience and age influence in the declarative kno- wledge. Participants in this study were volleyball players of two differents sport contexts (federative and scholl) and 13-16 ye- ars old (N=485). The declarative knowledge was assessed on a McGee and Farrow adapted test (1987). These results show that the high experience and age reveal higher levels of declarative knowledge. ANOVAs show significant differences existed in de- clarative knowledge according to the years of experience (F=97.87; p<.001) and age (F=35.98; p<.001). These findings are similar to the obtained in volleyball expertise studies, demons- trating that the players with higher experience possess a higher level of game general knowledge (Mesquita y Graca, 2002; Mo- reno et al., en revision). In other studies in which the question- naires have been used as knowledge measurement instrument, a higher level has been obtained in players with high experien- ce that the players with down experience (French y Thomas, 1987).