Relationships Between Assessments Of Athletic Ability In NAIA Athletes

Abstract

PURPOSE: To examine the relationships between flexibility, body composition, and several field methods indicative of athletic ability in a population of National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) athletes. METHODS: Shoulder flexion (SF), hip flexion (HF), and ankle plantar flexion (APF) were assessed by goniometry. %BF and FFM were assessed using BodPod. Athletic ability was assessed by the Illinois Agility Test (IAT), Queens College Step Test (QCST), vertical jump (VJ), isometric handgrip (IH), and a push-up muscular endurance test (PU). Subjects (n = 18) included both sexes across a variety of sports. Relationships between range of motion at each site, %BF, FFM, and all indicators of athletic ability were examined using Spearman’s correlation coefficients. For relationships involving IAT and QCST, only 10 subjects are reported as the others did not complete this assessment. RESULTS: Relationships between variables are presented in Table 1. Means and standard deviations for each variable were as follows: SF (191 + 22°), HF (77 ± 11°), APF (37 ± 13°), FFM (73 + 8 kg), %BF (16.8 ± 6.6 %), VJ (66 ± 10 cm), IH (45 + 6 kg), PU (41 ± 19 PU/min), QCST (55 + 14 steps), IAT (17.4 ± 1.2 s).Table 1: Spearman’s correlations (r). Significant p values (<0.05) are included.CONCLUSION: These data suggest that flexibility, body composition, and indicators of athletic ability are not greatly related in this population. Thus, it would be beneficial for NAIA coaches to perform all of these assessments when evaluating an athlete as any single measure is likely to provide unique information.