Estudio del conocimiento declarativo en función de la experiencia y de la edad en jugadores jóvenes de voleibol. (Study of declared knowledge according to experience and age in young volleyball players)

The cognitive aspect is one of the domains in which the sport performance is based (Janelle y Hillman, 2003). This component is more important in high strategy sports, as the volleyball, so to the uncertainty in which the players are unrolled in a real game environment (Thomas, 1994). The purpose of this study was to know the declarative knowledge in youth volleyball players and the experience and age influence in the declarative knowledge. Participants in this study were volleyball players of two differents sport contexts (federative and scholl) and 13-16 years old (N=485). The declarative knowledge was assessed on a McGee and Farrow adapted test (1987). These results show that the high experience and age reveal higher levels of declarative knowledge. ANOVAs show significant differences existed in declarative knowledge according to the years of experience (F=97.87; p<.001) and age (F=35.98; p<.001). These findings are similar to the obtained in volleyball expertise studies, demonstrating that the players with higher experience possess a higher level of game general knowledge (Mesquita y Graca, 2002; Moreno et al., en revision). In other studies in which the questionnaires have been used as knowledge measurement instrument, a higher level has been obtained in players with high experience that the players with down experience (French y Thomas, 1987).