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Anthropometric, strength, and power predictors of sprinting performance
M Kukolj1, R Ropret, D Ugarkovic
1Research Center, Faculty for Physical Culture, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Background:
The purpose of this study was to examine relations between sprinting performance (i.e. average velocity within both the initial acceleration and maximum speed phases of sprint running) and some standard anthropometric, strength, and power tests.
Methods:
Twenty-four male students of physical education were timed over the distances of 0.5-15 m and 15-30 m from the sprint start. Several measures of muscle isometric strength (knee extensors, hip extensors and flexors) and power (height of the counter movement jump and the average power of leg extensors during continuous jumping) were also collected, in addition to the lean body mass and the percentage of both muscle and fat tissue.
Results:
The results obtained demonstrated that, except for the height of the counter movement jump, all correlation coefficients between the selected variables and sprinting performance were low and, therefore, insignificant. As a consequence, multiple correlation coefficients were also low (0.43 and 0.56 for the initial acceleration and maximal speed phase, respectively).
Conclusions:
Most of the standard anthropometric, strength and power tests could be poor predictors of sprinting performance. A better assessment of sprinting performance could be based on more specific tests that, unfortunately, require more complex measurements.