Diego Fortes de Souza Salgueiro; Renato Barroso; Augusto Carvalho Barbosa;Thiago Telles & Orival Andries Júnior

 

Summary

This study compared anthropometric parameters among different military sports. One hundred and seventy male cadets of the Brazilian Air Force Academy, who were participants of athletics (n= 33, 20.5±1.3 years), basketball (n= 11, 19.9±1.8 years), fencing (n= 10, 19.9±0.7 years), soccer (n= 21, 20.9±1.6 years), judo (n= 17, 20.7±1.0 years), swimming (n= 15, 20.4±1.2 years), orienteering (n= 10, 21.3±1.6 years), military pentathlon (n= 11, 20.7±1.2 years), water polo (n=10, 21.1±0.9 years), shooting (n= 18, 21.3±1.2 years) or volleyball (n= 14, 20.9±1.7 years) military competitive teams, participated in this study. Height, body mass, body mass index, fat percentage, lean body mass, fat mass, waist and hip perimeters, and waist-hip ratio were measured. Main effects were detected for height, body mass, body mass index, lean body mass, waist and hip perimeters. The only significant finding was that orienteers present lower lean body mass than volleyball and water polo players. These results point out the homogeneity of group anthropometric parameters (except lean body mass), suggesting that military coaches do not rely on the anthropometric parameters, but on specific skills demonstrated during initial period of practice to choose athletes for their teams.

KEY WORDS: Cadets; Anthropometric parameters; Military sports.

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