Uticaj kinantropometrijskih faktora na uspeh u ritmičkoj gimnastici

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the significance of the influence of each of the selected, mutually very closely related kinanthropometric factors (somatotype, body composition, sexual maturity, specific coordination abilities) on the rhythmic gymnasts’ (RGs) sports performance. One hundred and twenty-six national and international level RGs (age: 11.95±3.09 years, body height: 147.76±14.61 cm, body mass: 37.75±11.72 kg, BMI: 16.79±2.26 kg/m2, menarcheal age: 13.57±1.18 years, training experience: 5.88±2.79 years), divided into five age group categories (15 seniors, aged 16 years and older; 25 juniors, aged 14-16 years; 26 advanced, aged 12-14 years; 38 intermediate, aged 9-12 years; 22 beginners, aged 7-9 years), volunteered to participate in the study. Multiple regression analysis was applied to determine statistically significant influence of each of the selected kinanthropometric factors on the “Success”. Namely, RGs’ somatotype, body composition, sexual maturity and specific coordination abilities are significant predictive factors for their performance, with a variance explanation of 11%, 13%, 14% and 38%, respectively. At univariate level, regression analysis highlights the statistically significant independent contribution of endomorphy (at all categories, except for the beginners), axillary hair development (only for the advanced), ball and hoop coordination (for the intermediate), to the prediction of RGs’ Success. This research has confirmed the importance of endomorphy for the Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG) performance, and the negative relations among this predictive and criterion variable unambiguously emphasized the lack of subcutaneous fat as desirable factor for the success in RG. Also, the negative relations of almost all of the body composition parameters and the competition results indicate that the low percentage of body fat, long and thin limbs, and low body mass, are desirable morphological characteristics among successful RGs. The low percentage of body fat entails a delay in pubertal development, which is actually desirable in conventional type of sports and is confirmed by the negative relations of each of the examined sexual maturity parameters in the group of pubertal senior RGs and the performance. The obtained results, i.e. the lack of the statistically significant influence of coordination on the “Success”, in the group of junior and senior RGs, and its presence in the group of the advanced and intermediate RGs, clearly indicates the less important role of the specific coordination in the performance of the older age category RGs. This does not diminish the importance of the coordination abilities, yet it rather simply suggests the presence of more important factors which discriminate the successful from less successful gymnasts.