Somatotypes of young male athletes and non-athlete students in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

There is a considerable corpus of evidence indicating that athletes succeeding in certain sports have distinctive body shapes that differ according to the demands of the type of sports and competitive level. The aim of this study was to determine the specific morphological characteristics of young male athletes compared with non-athlete students in Indonesia. Anthropometric measurements of 19 badminton players, 96 soccer players, 74 volleyball players, and 51 non-athlete undergraduate students, aged 16 to 28, were obtained in 1994 and 1995. Stature, body weight, bicondylar breadths of the humerus and femur, calf and upper arm circumferences, and skinfolds (at triceps, subscapula, calf, and supraspine) were measured for each subject. Heath-Carter somatotypes were determined in all the subjects. The results of the ANOVA of the body measurements showed that the three groups of athletes and the non-athlete students were heterogeneous: the badminton players were shorter and lighter with greater skinfold values among the athlete groups; the soccer players were relatively shorter and with smaller skinfold values and greater arm and leg girths; and the volleyball players were taller and heavier with smaller elbow and knee breadths and very small skinfold values. The non-athlete students were characterized by greater arm girth, elbow breadths, knee breadths, and back and leg skinfolds. In mean somatotype category, the badminton players were ‘central’ (3.3-3.7-3.7), the soccer players were ‘balanced mesomorph’ (2.7-4.9-3.0), the volleyball players were ‘mesomorph-ectomorph’ (2.4-3.5-3.7), and the non-athlete students were ‘ectomorphic mesomorph’ (2.7-5.2-3.8). Comparisons of international scope with each of the different sports showed that the Indonesian players were extremely short and light.