TY - JOUR T1 - BASEM Congress 2000 JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - e2 LP - e2 DO - 10.1136/bjsm.36.1.e2 VL - 36 IS - 1 A2 - , Y1 - 2002/02/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/36/1/e2.abstract N2 - S.E.H. Davies, M.F. Coetsee. Department of Human Movement Science, University of Zululand, South AfricaAim: There appears to be a paucity of research regarding the sport of A2 Man@ beach volleyball (Davies SHE, et al. South African Journal of Sports Medicine 1998;5:13–17OpenUrl).This study investigated the morphological and physiological characteristics of thirteen elite male beach South African (SA) volleyball players, because fitness, physical characteristics and skill are key factors determining performance (Smith DG, et al. Journal of Sports Sciences 1991;10:31–138OpenUrl).Methods: Parameters measured included stature, mass, percentage body fat, maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), maximal heart rate, and lactate after a treadmill run. All subjects freely volunteered after completing an informed consent form.Results: The results indicate that elite SA beach volleyball players are generally shorter 185.28 cm and lighter 82.01 kg than elite indoor players, and a higher in percentage body fat 13.12%. Their physiological characteristics indicated a mean VO2max of 59.37 ml/kg/min with a maximal heart rate of 189.38 bpm and lactate measure of 11.87 mmol/L after a treadmill run to exhaustion.Conclusions: The results suggest that a lack of emphasis on positional specialisation in beach volleyball appears to have mitigated against the extreme physiques often observed in indoor volleyball players. Interestingly it would seem elite beach volleyball players have superior selected physiological characteristics in terms of VO2max and lactate measures after a maximal treadmill run to exhaustion when compared to indoor players. This would imply that training and playing on sand may have beneficial physiological outcomes when compared to doing similar activities on a hard non-compliant terrain (assuming that there are no major genetic differences between performers).S.E.H. Davies, M.F. Coetsee. Department of Human Movement Science, University of Zululand, South … ER -