The Relationship between Aerobic Endurance and RAST Test Performance in Female National Futsal Players

Today¡ futsal is a team sport with a ball which has been popular in recent years. Now¡ the players of this sport are at a professional level and in interaction with professional players. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between aerobic endurance and RAST test performance in Iranian female national futsal players (IFNFP). For this purpose¡ 22 IFNFP (mean age 25.18±3.08 yr; weight 54.64±6.61 kg; height 162.25±5.17 cm) present in the women’s futsal national team camp participated in this study. Aerobic endurance performance¡ anaerobic power¡ as well as body composition were measured. To analyze data and the relationship among variables¡ Pearson correlation coefficient and simple liner regression were used at significance level of P≤0.05. The results showed a significant positive moderate relationship between aerobic endurance and mean anaerobic power of IFNFP (R=0.57¡ P=0.008). However¡ there was a poor and opposite relationship between aerobic endurance and fatigue index¡ aerobic endurance and body fat %¡ mean anaerobic power and fatigue index¡ and mean anaerobic power and body fat % of IFNFP (R=0.07¡ P=0.76; R=0.08¡ P=0.72; R=0.04¡ P=0.85; R=0.07¡ P=0.75 respectively) which was not statistically significant. The results showed that the share of oxidative phosphorylation in consuming the entire energy during intensive short-term runs (less than 6 seconds) can be neglected; but if such short-term runs are supposed to be repeated several times along with short-term recovery¡ the role of aerobic endurance and in fact oxidative phosphorylation cannot be neglected. Therefore¡ it seems that the higher the oxygen consumption during intensive short-term runs¡ the lower the reliance on anaerobic glycolysis will be and also the higher the power maintenance. The results showed a significant positive relationship between aerobic endurance performance and RAST anaerobic test in IFNFP. Therefore¡ aerobic power specially should be considered as an important and determinant factor in preparing futsal players.