COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ANTHROPOMETRIC MEASUREMENT AND BODY COMPOSITION OF JUNIOR SOCCER AND HANDBALL PLAYERS FROM THE SERBIAN NATIONAL LEAGUE

摘要

The purpose of this study was to describe anthropometric characteristics and body composition of junior soccer and handball players from the Serbian National League and to make a comparison between them. Seventy-two male athletes engaged in this study were divided into three groups: twenty-five soccer players, fifteen handball players and thirty-two healthy sedentary subjects. All subjects were assessed for anthropometric measures required for the calculation of body composition variables, using standardized procedure recommended by previous studies. Data was analysed using SPSS and the descriptive statistics were expressed as a mean (SD) for each variable, while ANOVA and LSD Post Hoc test were carried out to detect the effects of each type of sport. The results showed that a significant difference was only found in body fat among the groups, while there was no significant difference in height, weight, Zaccagni, 2011 index, muscle mass or in bone content among the groups. Handball players showed significantly higher percentage of muscle mass than subjects from the control group, while no other differences were found regarding this variable. Soccer players showed significantly lower percentage of body fat than subjects from the control group, while no other differences were found regarding this variable. These findings may give coaches from the region better working knowledge, and suggest to them to follow recent selection process methods and to be more careful during the recruitment.