Assessment and Comparative Analysis of Individual Temperament and Somatotype in Young Athletes According to Iranian Traditional Medicine and Heath-Carter Method

Abstract

This study examined the hypothesis that whether any significant differences exist or not in individual temperament and somatotype components in young athletes. Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried out with 202 male athletes (age = 23 years ± 2.7, mean ± SE). They were categorized into four groups according to their temperaments by using a questionnaire. Also, the Heath-Carter method was applied to estimate the somatotype components. One-Way ANOVA followed by Scheffe's tests was organized (p<0.05) for data analysis. Results: In this research, the highest mesomorphy, ectomorphy and endomorphy components were observed in the Blood, Yellow Bile and Phlegm temperaments, respectively with means of 6.1 ± 0.28, 3.9 ± 0.11, and 5.9 ± 0.32. Also, a significant difference was observed between Blood temperament and, mesomorphy component (p<0.001) but Blood temperament had insignificant differences with other studied somatotype components (p>0.05). Ectomorphy and mesomorphy components significantly differ among Yellow Bile temperament (p<0.05), while an insignificant difference was found between Yellow Bile temperament and endomorphy component (p>0.05).Significant differences also were showed between Black Bile temperament and all somatotype components (p<0.05).Among Phlegm temperament and endomorphy component was a significant difference (p<0.001), but there were no significant differences between the Phlegm temperament and the other two somatotype components (p>0.05). Conclusions: Given the importance of body type in sports performance, current findings suggest that coaches should be aware of the individual temperaments which could serve as a guide to design special training schedules for athletes.