Anthropometric and Body Composition Profile of Young Professional Soccer Players

Abstract

Bernal-Orozco, MF, Posada-Falomir, M, Quiñónez-Gastélum, CM, Plascencia-Aguilera, LP, Arana-Nuño, JR, Badillo-Camacho, N, Márquez-Sandoval, F, Holway, FE, and Vizmanos-Lamotte, B. Anthropometric and body composition profile of young professional soccer players. J Strength Cond Res 34(7): 1911–1923, 2020—The purpose was to describe the anthropometric and body composition profile of young professional soccer players and to compare the players profiles between different competitive divisions and playing positions. A retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out with anthropometric data obtained from the records of soccer players of Club Deportivo Guadalajara, S.A. de C.V. (Mexico) in the under-17, under-20, second, third, and fourth division categories. Body mass, height, sitting-height, skinfolds, girths, and bone breadths were measured by certified anthropometrists from September 2011 to March 2015, following the procedures recommended by the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry. Body composition was determined using the 5-way fractionation method. Comparisons between playing positions in each division and between divisions were performed using analysis of variance, and Bonferroni's post-hoc analyses (SPSS version 22 for Windows, p < 0.05 considered as significant). Data from 755 subjects were analyzed. The mean age was 18.1 ± 1.7 years old (minimum 14.8, maximum 23.2). The under-20 division registered higher anthropometric and body composition values than all other competitive divisions. In addition, goalkeepers were taller, heavier, and obtained the highest values for adipose mass, whereas forwards presented higher percentages of muscle mass. These tables can be used during nutritional assessment and nutritional monitoring of players to establish body composition goals. In addition, the strength and conditioning practitioner may also use these data to design effective and specific training programs most suitable to the anthropometric and body composition profile of each player, taking into consideration his competitive division and playing position.

Body Composition Assessment and Mediterranean Diet Adherence in U12 Spanish Male Professional Soccer Players: Cross-Sectional Study

“…In addition, it is observed that there is a decrease in the levels of BMI percentile and body fat percentage as the position of the player moves away from the goalkeeper (goalkeepers > defenders > midfielders > forwards). These results are in accordance with what was observed in higher categories (U14-U20) [21,43]; however, thanks to this study, it can be concluded that the anthropometric differences between field positions already exist from the lowest categories (U12). This outcome could be attributed to the fact that goalkeepers are subject to a lower metabolic rate than other players during games and training [18,44].…”

“…Because it is a recent field of study, the data on nutritional and body composition characteristics through anthropometric measures of lower-level soccer players are scarce. There are enough anthropometric data in professional teams U13-U19 [18][19][20][21], but in lower categories, the anthropometric data are limited, especially when it comes to seeing differences between field positions [21]. In addition, to date, there are no data about adherence to the Mediterranean diet in U12 professional soccer players.…”

Composição Corporal de Jogadores de Futebol Sub-19: Influência da Posição de Campo

“…4,7 Assim sendo, a monitorização destes parâmetros torna-se uma tarefa importante em contexto desportivo. 7 Um aspeto fundamental a ter em conta aquando da avaliação da CC em futebolistas, é a posição que estes assumem em campo 7 , pois as diferentes exigências físicas 5,8 , fisiológicas 7,9 e metabólicas 7 inerentes a cada posição podem sugerir a presença de distintas características antropométricas 3,7 e de CC 7,8 entre os jogadores de uma mesma equipa 8 . De facto, a literatura tem demonstrado que existe uma especificidade posicional, tendo sido já descritas diferenças de altura 3,5 , peso 3,5 e percentagem de MG (%MG) em relação à posição assumida pelos jogadores em campo.…”

Morphology, body composition and maturity status of young Colombian athletes from the Urabá subregion: A k-Medoids and hierarchical clustering analysis

“…A multi-component model of body composition was used to predict skin, adipose, muscle, bone and residual tissue masses (Kerr, 1988). This method has been shown to be appropriate to determine muscle mass (Berral de la Rosa, Rodríguez-Bies, Berral de la Rosa, Rojano Ortega, & Lara Padilla, 2010) and is frequently used as fractionation method to study body composition (Bernal-Orozco et al, 2020;Holway & Garavaglia, 2009). In addition, we estimated the percentage of body fat according to the two skinfold-based equations developed by Slaughter et al (1988), which have shown to be accurate among non-obese children (Freedman, Horlick, & Berenson, 2013) and are commonly used in Colombian population due to the lack of an specific equation for this population (Alzate Salazar, Ramos Bermúdez, & Melo Betancourt, 2011;Correa & Enrique, 2008;Palma et al, 2021;Petro, Rodríguez Arrieta, & Montenegro Arjona, 2017).…”