Physical fitness of elite women's rugby union players over a ...
Physical fitness of elite women's rugby union players over a ...
Physical fitness of elite women's rugby union players over a ...
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3.5 DATA COLLECTION<br />
The collection <strong>of</strong> physical <strong>fitness</strong> data occurred on three assessment periods during the season<br />
(pre-season, mid-season and post-season), <strong>of</strong> which coincided with the National training<br />
camps. All <strong>of</strong> the <strong>players</strong> were assessed on each test on the first day <strong>of</strong> each training camp.<br />
On arrival at the training camp, <strong>players</strong> completed a detailed medical questionnaire and had a<br />
full medical examination by the team sport physician and musculo-skeletal screening by the<br />
physiotherapist. Players with medical conditions were excluded from participating in the<br />
physical assessment. Participants were familiarized with the testing protocol, although they<br />
had already been tested on several occasions for training program prescription purposes.<br />
The participants were confirmed by the South African Institute for Drug Free Sport as not<br />
having taken any exogenous anabolic-androgenic steroids or other drugs or substances that<br />
could affect physical performance or hormonal balance. During the data collection process,<br />
assistants were used to help administer the testing .All <strong>of</strong> the assistants were qualified<br />
Biokineticist and also trained by the researcher prior to assisting in the physical evaluations.<br />
3.6 TESTING PROTOCOL<br />
The testing protocol consisted <strong>of</strong> anthropometric and physical measurements which were<br />
performed in the following order:<br />
Anthropometric measurements<br />
<br />
Stature<br />
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