Advances in Water-Based Team Sports: Performance, Training Strategies, and Athlete Development

A special issue of Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology (ISSN 2411-5142). This special issue belongs to the section "Athletic Training and Human Performance".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 265

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Medicine, University of Split, Split, Croatia
Interests: water-based sports; water polo; youth athletes; elite athletes; talent development; sport injuries; orofacial injuries; cognition; executive functions; sleep
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the last decade, there has been growing interest for participation in water-based team sports worldwide, for both men and women, youth and adults. The scientific literature identifying performance indicators and other factors related to success in the game, particularly in youth athletes, is scarce. Water-based team sports take place in water, an unnatural medium for humans, making movements more challenging than in other court sports, while adopting technical–tactical rules and game strategies. Therefore, athletes’ development and training strategies in water-based team sports are challenging while requiring specific anthropometric characteristics and functional capacities. Thus, this Special Issue focuses on different advances in training strategies in water-based team sports including various factors influencing success in the game, such as nutrition, injuries, sleep and recovery, psychological aspects, and the overall well-being of an athlete, in an attempt to understand their role in enhancing sports performance and promote long-term athletic growth. It will feature up-to-date research offering new insights and evaluations of innovative practices and emerging technologies for training and performance strategies in water-based team sports in different age populations, from youth to professionals, for male and female athletes. Additionally, we welcome research exploring the interaction between different success factors, the development of sports-specific skills, and how they can be enhanced through targeted training interventions. Authors are invited to submit original research, longitudinal studies, review papers, and applied field-based investigations to offer new insights into water polo performance and key factors to success. We welcome submissions that provide profound and original perspectives, contributing valuable insights to the scientific literature with practical and effective approaches applicable to the sports field. These submissions should encourage a critical, forward-looking perspective, addressing the future challenges faced by water polo players, coaches, and researchers alike, while fostering a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to the promotion of water-based team sports.

Dr. Tea Galic
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • water-based sports
  • swimming
  • water polo
  • youth athletes
  • elite athletes
  • training load
  • talent development
  • team sports performance
  • training strategies
  • sports injuries
  • sports nutrition
  • recovery

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

9 pages, 461 KiB  
Article
Assessment of Youth Water Polo Players’ Swimming Sprint Potential: A New Approach to Building an International Model
by Andrea Perazzetti, Antonio Tessitore, Mehmet Zeki Özkol, Nebojša Novoselac and Milivoj Dopsaj
J. Funct. Morphol. Kinesiol. 2025, 10(2), 200; https://doi.org/10.3390/jfmk10020200 - 31 May 2025
Viewed by 184
Abstract
Background: To cope with their horizontal swimming phases, water polo players use different swimming techniques, such as specific variants of the crawl swimming style. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the swimming skills of young water polo players. Methods: An all-out [...] Read more.
Background: To cope with their horizontal swimming phases, water polo players use different swimming techniques, such as specific variants of the crawl swimming style. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the swimming skills of young water polo players. Methods: An all-out 25-m sprint swimming test in crawl style was completed by 273 international youth water polo players (age = 14.0 ± 0.8 yrs) in two modalities: basic crawl with the head in the water (25CHeadIN), and a crawl performed while dribbling the ball (25CBall). Results: We registered an average time of 14.79 and 15.64 s for 25CHeadIN and 25CBall, respectively, in which the ball dribbling increased to 5% of the swimming time. A swimming skill index (25CSIC) was calculated to account for differences in ball dribbling speeds, which, considering our international sample and in the absence of previous data, we could speculate as the first international standard value for 14-year-old male water polo players competing at international level. The averaged values for 25CSI and 25CSIC were 0.94 ± 0.04 (a.u.) and 1.52 ± 0.15 (a.u.), respectively. Factor analysis indicated that swimming with and without the ball are structurally distinct technical skills, highlighting the specificity of these water polo players’ abilities. Moreover, the study shows significant differences (p < 0.05) between players from different countries and despite some limitations, its results provide valuable insights for the assessment and development of sprint swimming skills in youth water polo players. Conclusions: In summary, the findings of this research provide practical implications for training, player selection, player development and the optimization of youth water polo player performance. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop