1Sports University of Tirana, Faculty of Movement Sciences, Tirana, Albania – External Lecturer, 2Sports University of Tirana, Faculty of Movement Sciences, Tirana, Albania
A Comparative Study Between Genders in Ball Coordination Skills in Children in the Volleyball Discipline
Innov. Technol. Sport Phys. Act. 2025, 4(1), 15-19 | DOI: 10.56886/itspa.250603
Abstract
This study aimed to examine gender differences in coordination skills among children aged 10–12 years who have one year of experience in volleyball. Coordination is a fundamental component of motor de-velopment and plays a critical role in sports performance, particularly in team sports such as volleyball. A total of 34 children (16 boys and 18 girls) participated in the study. Anthropometric measurements (height, weight, waist circumference), flexibility (sit-and-reach test), speed (20-meter sprint), and coordination skills (plate tapping test with dominant and non-dominant hands, and KTK plate movement test) were assessed. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and independent samples t-tests were performed to compare gender differences. Levene’s test was used to assess the homogeneity of variances. Based on the anthropometric comparisons, no significant gender differences were found in height, weight, or waist circumference. These results suggest that at this age, boys and girls engaged in regular volleyball training are relatively similar in basic body measurements. In contrast, analysis of motor abilities revealed significant gender differences in flexibility and sprint performance. Girls demonstrated significantly greater flexibility than boys, and boys were significantly faster than girls in the 20-meter sprint. No significant gender differences were observed
in the coordination tasks, including the plate tapping test (dominant and non-dominant hand) and the KTK Plate Movement test. Overall, these findings suggest that while flexibility and sprint speed differ between genders at this age, coordination skills appear largely comparable when boys and girls have similar sports exposure. This highlights the value of offering the same motor skill training to both genders in early sport specialization phases such as volleyball.
Keywords
coordination skills, gender differences, volleyball, children, motor performance, physical education
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