Evaluation of eligibility of 10-12 years old group of boys in soccer branch (example of Batman province)

Aim: In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the eligibility of 10-12 age group children in Batman province to football branch. Material and Method: 524 volunteer male students whose ages vary between 10 and 12 took part in the study. The subjects participating in the study consisted of the pupils studying at Batman's central primary and secondary schools and not performing sports actively. The measurements of age, height, weight, body fat percentage (BFP) and body mass index (BMI) were conducted as the Anthropometric measurements of the male children comprising the research group. As the motoric properties, vertical jump test (VJT), 20 m sprint test (TST), and Illinois agility test (IAT) were performed. As the football skill tests, Johansson quick pass test (JPT), ball dribbling test (BDT), keepy uppy test (KUT), and goal-post shooting test (GST) were conducted in field conditions. The analysis of the data was carried out with IBM SPSS statistics 20 package program. The normality hypothesis of each variable was performed via Shapiro-Wilk test and Pearson correlation was used in the relation between those meeting the normality hypothesis and Spearman correlation was used in the others. A 0.05 significance level was used in the analysis of the obtained data. Results: In terms of the results of heights, weights, BFP and BMI of the children consisting of the research group, no statistically significant difference from the values in similar studies was found. In the motoric properties, VJT has a positive significant relation with KUT, GST, and JPT and negative significant relation with BDT. It was observed that TST had a negative significant relation with KUT and JPT and positive significant relation with BDT. No significant relation with GST was observed. IAT; there is a positive meaningful correlation with BDT and negative correlation with JPT and KUT. No statistically correlation with GST was observed. Conclusion: A positive significant relation between the test batteries used to measure the football skills of the male children was observed in the study. In the comparison of the suitability of our group for football with the other studies in the literature, high values were attained in VJT, TST, IAT, and JPT while similar results with GST and KUT were obtained. BDT yielded worse results. In general, it appears that the propensity averages of the 10 year-old male children toward football are high. Keywords: Male children, Soccer, Eligibility, talent selection