Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on elite volleyball athletes

Abstract

Objective: To investigate how elite female and male volleyball players spent their time during lockdown in terms of keeping up their physical training and maintaining wellbeing as well as their beliefs, attitudes and expectation/perceptions about the upcoming season. Materials and Methods: 331 elite volleyball players took part in the study. A survey, consisted of single and multiple-choice questions was applied. The Chi-square test was used to compare groups’ frequency data. Following Chi-square test, Bonferroni correction was made and the statistical significance level was accepted as p<0.01. The significance level was set as p<0.05 for the rest of statistical analyses. Results: 147 (44.4%) male and 184 (55.6%) female players participated in the study. The mean age was 24.8±5.0 (15-37). Female athletes (97.3%) stated that they did more physical activity than male athletes (83.7%) (p<0.001), 40.8% of male athletes thought that they could not maintain their physical condition (p: 0.043). Female players participated exercise programs designed by their conditioners more than male counterparts (p<0.001). Sleep quality which was rated as “good” decreased from 89.8% to 44.2% for male athletes, while it has been decreased from 94.6% to 37.5% for females (p<0.001 for both genders). Conclusion: Majority of athletes had motivation to be physically active during the 9-week lockdown period. Athletes showed that they could overcome training barriers by adapting their exercises and training routines. Female volleyball players were more cautious in terms of being active and avoiding risk of infection.