1. Home
2. Archive
3. 2014
4. 1/2014
5. Somatic development of young fencers

Somatic development of young fencers

Коryakovtseva М.S. (1), Godina E.Z. (2), Rizhkova L.G. (1)

1) Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism, Моscow; 2) Lomonosov Moscow State University, Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Mokhovaya st., 11, Moscow, 125009, Russia

Коryakovtseva М.S., e-mail: marik90@mail.ru; Godina E.Z., D.Sc., prof., ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0692-420X, e-mail: egodina11@gmail.com; Rizhkova L.G., e-mail: fencing-rgufk@yandex.ru

Abstract

The relationship between physical exercises of varying intensity and physical development of athletes is known for a long time. Athletes of each sport are characterized by a certain set of parameters that distinguish them from each other. Aim of the present study was to investigate physical characteristics of 10–18-year-old fencers in the relation to their sport qualification and in comparison with children of the same age who do not go in for any kind of sport. The study is based on the results of 2010–2012 survey of Moscow fencers, with the experience of sports training from 1 to 8 years and sports category, up to the rank of Master of Sports. Data of Moscow schoolchildren who do not exercise on a regular basis, examined in 2005–2011, served as a control group. The sample consisted of 277 athletes; the control sample represented 1147 schoolchildren. The program included about 50 anthropometric measurements [Bunak, 1941], the assessment of somatotype by Shtefko-Ostrovsky [1929] method. Comparative analysis of the combined sample of athletes and children and adolescents not involved in sports, showed that the athletes were different from the control sample in a variety of features that affect athletic performance and success in the sport: namely, larger stature and limbs length, bigger values of shoulder and pelvic diameters, smaller subcutaneous fat layer than that of schoolchildren, etc. With age (17 years and after), the differences between the studied fencers and schoolchildren are enhanced. This applies to stature and limb length in girls, body proportions, shoulder and pelvic diameters, chest circumference and chest shape, diameters of distal epiphysis of lower extremities, as well as skinfolds thickness.

Keywords

sports anthropology, somatic development, biological age, somatotype, 10–18-year-old fencers

Цит.: Коryakovtseva М.S., Godina E.Z., Rizhkova L.G. Somatic development of young fencers // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2014; 1/2014; с. 107-114