{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,23]],"date-time":"2026-06-23T10:51:55Z","timestamp":1782211915201,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,13]],"date-time":"2026-06-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1781308800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JFMK"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Objectives: Volleyball playing positions are associated with different functional demands. This study compared postural control, jump performance, and upper-limb mobility across playing roles in competitive male volleyball players. Methods: Fifty male volleyball players competing in the Italian Serie C championship were equally distributed across five roles: middle blockers (MB), liberos (LIB), opposite hitters (OH), setters (SET), and outside hitters (HIT). Using a wearable inertial sensor, athletes performed bipodalic balance tasks with eyes open and closed, dominant- and non-dominant-leg single-leg balance, squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), and bilateral upper-limb flexion and extension tests. Results: Significant role-related differences emerged in balance and jump performance. In bipodalic balance, the eyes-open condition showed a mixed pattern, with HIT displaying the largest ellipse area and SET showing the highest path-related values, whereas in the eyes-closed condition, HIT showed the highest values across all stabilometric parameters. In the single-leg stance, OH showed the largest postural excursions on the dominant side, while LIB stood out on the non-dominant side. In jump tests, MB showed the best vertical performance in both SJ and CMJ, whereas LIB and SET generally showed the lowest outputs. Temporal differences also emerged across roles. Upper-limb mobility was similar across roles in flexion, while extension showed a role-specific pattern, with SET displaying greater ROM than LIB, HIT, and OH. Conclusions: Volleyball roles are associated with distinct functional profiles in balance, jump mechanics, and upper-limb mobility. This integrated assessment may support more specific training, monitoring, and injury-prevention strategies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jfmk11020238","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,15]],"date-time":"2026-06-15T03:01:27Z","timestamp":1781492487000},"page":"238","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Functional Differences Across Playing Roles in Volleyball: A Sensor-Based Assessment"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8997-7605","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Juri","family":"Taborri","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mauro","family":"Strippoli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9030-1998","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luca","family":"Molinaro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Theoretical and Applied Science, eCampus University, 22060 Novedrate, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0006-7013","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stefano","family":"Rossi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics, Engineering, Society and Business Organization, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13","DOI":"10.15406\/mojsm.2020.04.00087","article-title":"Specificity Principle Applied in the Volleyball","volume":"4","author":"Marques","year":"2020","journal-title":"MOJ Sports Med."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"813","DOI":"10.1519\/JSC.0000000000003519","article-title":"Volleyball-Specific Skills and Cognitive Functions Can Discriminate Players of Different Competitive Levels","volume":"36","author":"Formenti","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. 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