ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana - Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2019 October;178(10):781-4

DOI: 10.23736/S0393-3660.18.03960-8

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Comparison of anthropometric characteristics between elite singles and doubles badminton players

Kentaro CHINO ^{1, 2} ✉, Nagisa INOUE ³, Taro IIZUKA ³, Keita MASUDA ³, Joo B. PARK ³

¹ Sports Okinawa, Okinawa, Japan; ² Department of Sports Research, Japan Institute of Sports Sciences, Tokyo, Japan; ³ Nippon Badminton Association, Tokyo, Japan

BACKGROUND: Elite badminton players specialize in either singles or doubles matches, and the physiological demands of these events are different from one another. Most previous studies evaluated players according to sex, age, and/or competition level, but did not distinguish them according to their specialized event. Therefore, this study extended the previous studies by comparing anthropometric characteristics between elite singles and doubles badminton players.
METHODS: The participants included 25 male and 26 female Japanese elite badminton players qualifying for the Japan National Badminton Team. The participants were divided according to whether they were singles or doubles players and into the A-team (first string) and B-team (second string). The outcome measures were standing body height, body mass, percent body fat, lean body mass (LBM), and lean body mass index (LBMI), derived by dividing the LBM by the height squared.
RESULTS: Among men in the A-team, singles players were significantly taller than doubles players (P=0.02). Among women in the A-team, the LBMI of singles players was significantly higher than that of doubles players (P=0.03). Among men and women in the B-team, no significant difference was observed in anthropometric characteristics between singles and doubles players.
CONCLUSIONS: Significant differences in anthropometric characteristics between singles and doubles players were observed only in the A-team (i.e., top-elite players), suggesting that adaptation of badminton players to their specialized event was shown in top-elite players.

KEY WORDS: Racket sports; Anthropometry; Body composition; Whole body plethysmography