Andrés Esteban Roberto Godoy-Cumillaf; Pablo Antonio Valdés-Badilla; Noemí Salvador Soler; María Inés Carmona-López & Juan José Fernández

Summary

The high rate of physical inactivity and obesity reported in Chile, has given rise to various sports programs for children and adolescents who require reliable assessments of anthropometric characteristics for sports. In this sense, this research aims to determine the anthropometric characteristics of adolescents belonging to different training sports schools (AD) of Temuco, Chile and its relationship with ideal athletic parameters. The research provides a non-experimental, descriptive, transversal, with a quantitative approach to design. The sample consisted of 65 subjects (38 women) with a mean age of 15.9 (2.5) years and a BMI of 22.8 (4) kg/m2, who practiced taekwondo (n= 4), racquetball (n= 6), fencing (n= 7), karate (n= 8), athletics (n= 13), tennis (n= 6) andsoccer (n= 21). The results indicated that AD women were classified as endo-mesomorphic (4.9 ­ 4.3 ­ 1.5) with a mean percentage of 33.6% fat mass and 39.7% muscle mass, while the AD males were classified as meso-endomorphic (3 ­ 4.9 ­ 2.3) and they presented a 27.4% of fat mass and a 43.7% of muscle mass. In conclusion, although the AD evaluated showed normal weight, their body composition exhibits a high percentage of fat mass, even in comparison with normal parameters. Nevertheless, its somatotype was closer to the kineanthropometric profile ideal for sports, without showing any trend by sport. Further studies will be required to understand the role of training programs, athletic performance and eating habits in the optimization of sports performance.

KEY WORDS: Somatotype; Body composition; Nutritional status; Body mass index; Taekwondo, Racquetball; Fencing; Karate; Athletics; Tennis and soccer.

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