A Study on Anthropometric Profile of International and National level Gymnasts in India

Gymnastics is the oldest sports in Olympic. The term ‘gymnastics’ had come from the Greek word ‘gymnos’, meaning is ‘to exercise nude’, reflecting this meaning, because gymnasts in ancient Greece used to practice and competed completely in naked body . The term ‘gymnos’ mainly describes for the disciplinary exercises, which includes physical skills such as body control, strength, coordination, dexterity and gracefulness with acrobatic and tumbling skills, all exercise performed in an artistic manner- (Wikipedia). The benefits of gymnastics exercises are enormous as it mainly develops various component of Physical fitness such as strength, flexibility, agility, co-ordination, balance, grace, good posture and ability to respond. Moreover the gymnast’s body is continuously changed its direction and pace. In this process, the gymnast gain orientation and the interaction of inner and outer forces which enhance coordination skills and concentration. Human body is the most studied object of science (Harris et al., 2002). Scientists from the field of biological sciences use to study the human body in different points of view. Sports scientists consider human body as a machine that gives performance during various physical activities. Therefore, physique plays an important role to understand and analyze sport performance. Physical educationists, now-a-days, consider human body as the manifested from an individual’s total health in general and organic health in particular (Lacy & Hastad, 2006).

1960). Anthropometry- the measurement of man- provides scientific methods and observations on the living man and the skeleton. Anthropometry represents the typical and traditional tool of human biology, physical anthropology and Axiology. Recently it has taken a strong bonded relationship with physical education and sports sciences (Sodhi, 1991).

The purpose of the study was to observe- (1) The present status of International and National level Indian gymnasts in respect to their girths, Length and Breadths. (2) The comparison between International and National level Indian gymnasts with respect to their girths, Length and Breadths.

One hundred and twenty National and International male gymnast from all over India of 17-25 years of age were selected randomly as the subjects of the present study. International group consists of 06 and for national it was 114 subjects. To conduct the study the following measurements were taken- Age, Height, and Weight as personal data. For Girth measurements- Arm girth Relaxed, Arm girth flexed, Forearm, Wrist, Chest, Waist, Gluteal, Front Thigh and Calf girth were considered and for Length - Arm length, Leg length, Sitting Height and for Breadth – Humerus Breadth and Femur Breadth were taken. All the measurements were taken followed by standard procedure.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table-01 contains the personal data on age height and weight of international group (ING) and national group (NG).

From the Tabl-01 it is observed that the calculated t-value was 9.70 for Age and 2.42 for Weight which were higher than the critical t-value (t0.05118=1.98) and therefore, the difference in Age and Weight were statistically significant between the two groups at 0.05 level (p˃0.05). Other hand the t-value 0.47 for height

Discussion of Personal Data: Age of the ING had greater than the NG. However reverse was observed in weight, where the NG had higher value than the ING. As to the profile of personal data of the two groups the age was 24.33 years ±0.82 years for ING and 21.71 years NG. The height of ING was 165.83cm ±2.93 cm and NG was 166.24cm ±5.61cm. Weight was ING-58.17 Kg. ±5.49 KG and NG -68.83 Kg ±6.14 Kg.

From the Table-02 it is observed that the calculated t-values were 8.02 for arm girth (relax),8.36 for arm girth (flex), 3.03 for forearm, 2.20 for wrist, 3.41 for thigh, 0.38for calf, 3.14 for ankle girths were higher than the critical t-value (t0.05118=1.98) and therefore, the difference in arm girth (relax), Arm girth(Flexed), Forearm, Wrist, Thigh and Ankle girths were statistically significant but the t-value of Calf and Knee girths were 0.38 and 0.28 which were lower than the critical Value t-value (t0.05118=1.98) and therefore, the difference in Calf and knee girths were not statistically significant.

Discussion of Girth Measurements: Among the eight girths the ING was shown to be superior to the NG at six sites namely – arm (relaxed), arm (flexed), fore arm, thigh and ankle. However, the difference was not significant at calf and knee sites but no difference in the remaining measurements.

From the Table-03 it is observed that the calculated t-value 1.13 for Leg length and 2.30 for Femur Breadth were higher than the critical t-value (t0.05118=1.98) and therefore, the difference in Leg length and Femur Breadth were statistically significant. The calculated t-value 0.61 for Arm length, 0.53 for Sitting height and 2.30 for Humerus Breadth were lower than the critical t-value (t0.05118=1.98) and therefore, the difference in Arm length, Sitting height and Humerus Breadth were statistically not significant.

Discussion of Length and Breadths: Among the three length and two breadths the ING was superior than the NG group in each of the dimensions, namely - leg length in the length segment and bi-epicondyler femur, the remaining measurement were not different.

On the basis of the result and discussion of the present study the following conclusions were drawn- (1) Age and Height difference were found between International and National level gymnast group but there was no difference found in weight category. (2) In Arm (Relaxed), Arm (Flexed), Forearm, Wrist, Thigh and ankle girth measurements, the International gymnasts group was better but in Calf and knee girth classification of the gymnasts was similar in each variable. (3) In Leg length of International gymnasts group showed shorter with respect to the National level group. (4) In case of Femur Breadth, the International gymnasts groups was better than other group but in arm length and sitting height as well as in the Humerus breadth measurements the gymnasts of ING and NG group were identical.

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Gymnastics Coach, Department of Physical Education, University of Kalyani