Molnar, S. et al.: Differences of morphological characteristics of football… Sport Science 2 (2009) 2: 62‐65 62 DI FFERENCES OF MORPHOLOGI CAL CHARACTERI STI CS OF FOOTBALL PLAYERS AGED 10 YEARS OLD Slavko Molnar 1 , Dragan Doder 2 and Aleksandar Joksimovi ć 3 1 Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, Novi Sad, Serbia 2 Provincial Institute for Sport, Novi Sad, Serbia 3 Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, Niš, Serbia Original scientific paper Abstract During the last century it is observed that there is a lot of changes in the field of growth and development new generation familiar as acceleration of growth and development. The main goal of this research represents the derivation some knowledge about the difference of some morphological characteristics between two generation children of the same aged in a football school. The sample involves 43 male children aged ten years old who were tested in 1997 and 52 male children who were tested in 2007. The variables involve 12 anthropometrical measures which define longitudinal and transversal measures of skeleton, volume and mass of the body and under skin fat. The data is arranged by t-test. Key Words: morphological characteristics, acceleration, male children Introduction During the previous and this century it was noticeable a general tendency of changes in the growth and development of new generations. Because of that, following of morphological characteristics of children is the subject in more scientific disciplines. In physical education as well as in sport as its integral part, morphological characteristics and their knowing are important for a correct selection and an application of physical exercises, as well as a correct determination of load in a training process. A biological phenomenon of an indicator value increase of a somatic development and previous physiological maturing of children and youth is known as acceleration or a secondary trend of growth and development. This appearance is being registered independently from a geographical location, climate and ethnic belonging, in urban as well as in rural environment and it demands all classes ( Čeleš, Hadžikaduni ć, Hadžikaduni ć and Kozi ć, 2007). Nowadays, children are higher and heavier and they mature earlier than the children of the same chronological old age few generations before ( Đuragi ć, Popovi ć, Jevti ć and Nikoli ć 199), (Kalajdži ć, Ni ćin and Todorovi ć 1996), (Radovanovi ć 2000). Because of that, the aim of this paper was to establish if in a period of 10 years there were some changes in variables relevant for the estimation of a physical development of boys, attendants of the school of football in Novi Sad. Methods The sample of respondents enclosed 45 boys’ attendants of the school of football enrolled in 1997 at the age of 10 and 45 boys enrolled in 2007 of the same old age. In compliance with the set aim of work it was chosen a sample of twelve anthropometric variables, which were measured according to the International biologic programme (IBP). For the estimation of a longitudinal dimensionality of a skeleton: body height (HEIGHT), leg length (LLENGTH), foot length (FLENGTH), for the estimation of a transversal dimensionality of a skeleton: pelvis width (PELWID), shoulder width (SHOWID), knee diameter (KNEEDIA), for the estimation of mass and body volume: body mass (MASS), overhock size (OVESI) and forehock (FORSI). For the estimation of subcutaneous fatty tissue: abdomen skin fold (ABSFO), overhock skin fold (OVSFO), forehock skin fold (FOSFO). Anthropological measures were taken according to the method which is recommended by IBP. For all the variables there were calculated basic descriptive parameters, the difference between means, and the importance of differences of averages was calculated by t-test.