Specific test for water polo performance evaluation: A preliminary and profile study

Background: water polo (wp) is a sport with great aerobic/ anaerobic physiological demands. there are few studies that have evaluated the physical demands during the wp game and its relationship with the physiological indices of aerobic fitness aim: our aim was to determine the aerobic/ anaerobic profiles of the wp athletes through specific test. materials and methods: wp male athletes participated in this study (24.5±5.6 years, 85.9±10.3 kg, 183.0±6.3 cm, n=23). the athletes performed an anaerobic wp test (tanawp) to determine the height (alt- cm) of the 1st/ 15th/ 30th jumps, total time(s) of the jumps (tt30) and the fatigue index (fi). blood lactate kinetics were determined immediately after (lac0 min) and during the recovery period; lac 1/ 3/ 5/ 8/ 12 min. they also performed an aerobic water polo test (taerwp) to determine maximal oxygen consumption (vo2max) a heart rate (hrmax), peak blood lactate (lacp) and the second lactate threshold (ll2). results: the following results (in cm) were obtained in tanawp: alt1st (44±6), alt15th (32±7) and alt30th (24±9); tt30 (56.9±9.5); fi (42.0±12.5%); (lac0), (lac1), (lac3), (lac5), (lac8) and (lac12) (5.2±1.7; 7.8±1.6; 9.0±2.0; 9.4±2.2; 9.2±2.7; 8.5±2.2 mmol/l, respectively). the mean maximal values for the aerobic test were: vo2max=44.4±5.3 ml/kg/min, hrmax=174.3±9.1 bpm, lacp=8.6±2.1 mmol/l. the values obtained at ll2 were: 157.5±13.5 bpm/ 90.5±8.2% hrmax). conclusion: the proposed tests may be a possibility to determining the physiological fitness of wp athletes.