Bojan Masanovic; Jovan Gardasevic & Dusko Bjelica

The purpose of this study was to describe the anthropometric characteristics and body composition of elite handball and volleyball players from the Serbian national league as well as to make comparisons between them. Sixty males were enrolled, divided into three groups: 15 handball players, 14 volleyball players, and 31 healthy sedentary subjects. All subjects were assessed for the anthropometric measures required for the calculation of body composition variables, using the standardized procedures recommended by established literature. Data were analysed using SPSS, and the descriptive statistics were expressed as a mean (SD) for each variable, while the ANOVA and LSD Post Hoc tests were carried out to detect the effects of each type of sport. The results showed there was no significant difference for body weight and body mass index, nor were there any differences for the bone contents of bodies among the groups, while significant differences were found for body height, as well as for muscle and fat content of body among the groups. These findings may give coaches from the region better working knowledge and enable them to follow recent selection process methods and to be more careful during talent identification.

KEY WORDS: Sport; Top athletes; Talent identification; Handball; Volleyball; Male.

MASANOVIC, B.; GARDASEVIC, J. & BJELICA, D. Comparative study of anthropometric measurement and body composition between elite handball and volleyball players from the serbian national league. Int. J. Morphol., 39(1):287-293, 2021.