Kinanthropometry of world champion junior male field hockey players

Abstract

Introduction and purpose:There is a lack of published data on the anthropometric and relativeage effect of elite youth field hockey players. Purposes: (a) To establish the anthropometric characteristics of elite junior Argentine male field hockey players; (b) to look for differences in physique, years of playing and birth-date effect between the final players selected to make up the team and those who were not selected out of the original pre-selected sample; and (c) to establish whether there are any differences in proportional limb lengths between elite junior hockey players and a local reference sample. Methods: Thirty five elite Argentine junior field hockey players pre-selected to form the base of the national junior team for the 2005 Junior World Cup (Age 19.0 ± 1.0 years; weight 70.7 ± 5.4 kg; height 176.4 ± 6.4 cm). A full anthropometric battery including lengths, heights, breadths, girths, and skinfolds, plus number of years playing and date of birth. Results: No statistically significant differences were found in skeletal structural dimensions when compared to a reference sample, nor between finally selected and non-selected players in anthropometric dimensions, playing history (P = .11) and relative-age effect (P = .11). Conclusion: Male field hockey is a sport with normal bone-structural requirements, and with a lack of birth-date effect in Argentina.

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“…On the other hand, our players were slightly smaller in size than Indian senior national players (171.7 ± 5.8 cm and 60.9 ± 4.8 kg; Ghosh et al, 1991). In accordance with the previous findings (Holway and Seara, 2011;Koley and Vashisth, 2014), present goalkeepers were seen to be heaviest and tallest than the outfielders.…”

“…Tall players have an advantage in playing positions such as goalkeeper, forward and defence. In addition to this data, a select few have specifically studied and provided information on the physical characteristics such as body mass, height, body fat percentage and body mass index of elite and sub-elite players (Holway and Seara, 2011;Calo et al, 2009;Manna et al, 2011). Recently body composition analysis by impedance method showed higher Fat% for the backs/goalkeepers and lower for forwards group whereas opposite results were obtained for muscular mass (Calo et al, 2009).…”

Análisis De La Composición Corporal Y Patrones Dietéticos en Jugadores De Hockey

“…The heterogeneity in elite soccer players is low (SAM = 0.95) compared with field hockey selections (SAM = 1.2-2.0), suggesting that there is a higher degree of specialization in certain field positions in field hockey. Other national field hockey teams, such as Argentina, presented less endomorphy (2.0 + 0.5), but similar mesomorphy (4.5 + 0.9) and ectomorphy (2.7 + 0.9) than the nationals teams of the present study (Holway & Seara, 2011).…”