The impact of sport-specific warm-up practices on neuromuscular performance in junior male volleyball players

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of sport-specific warm-up programs applied over a period of 12 weeks on neuro-muscular performance test results used to determine injury risks in junior male volleyball players. The research design employed is a pre-test post-test control group experimental model. Measurements were taken from both groups before and after the experiment according to this model. The study was conducted at the Volleyball Hall of the Istanbul Dereağzı Facilities from March 01, 2023, to June 05, 2023, within a 12-week timeframe. The population of the study consists of 24 junior male volleyball players aged 15-17, forming two teams of 12 players each, competing in Istanbul. A "personal information form" was prepared to collect the athletes' sports history and other demographic information. SPSS (Statistical Package Program for Social Science) 21.0 software was used for data analysis. In this study, the effect of the branch-specific warm-up program called VOLLEY12+ on the neuromuscular performance of young male volleyball players was investigated. There was no significant difference in demographic and descriptive information between the research and control groups, but a significant difference was determined between sports ages. According to the performance test results, significant differences were detected between the research group and the control group in the Bess test and Less test scores. According to the Y balance test, it was determined that the 12-week application of the VOLLEY12+ program positively affected the neuromuscular performance of young male volleyball players. Therefore, it is suggested that increasing the number of planned warm-up programs specific to the Volleyball branch, applying VOLLEY12+ to age groups, and continuing the 12-week practice throughout the season will contribute to the performance parameters of volleyball.