Medidas antropométricas e a sua relação com o rendimento dos jogadores de futebol

Introduction According to the literature, anthropometric and physiological variables may be a determinant success factor for the players’ performance. Objective Verify the influence of anthropometric measures on player’s performance. Verify the influence of eating habits on player’s performance. Methods A cross-sectional, quantitative, observational and analytical study was developed. A sample of 87 Soccer Players from Superliga (Portuguese Football League) was collected. Anthropometric measures were evaluated using a Tanita® body composition analyzer TBF - 300, a compass Cescorf® and a tape measure. Eating habits were assessed using food diaries. The Cooper test was used to evaluate the player’s performance. SPSS 21.0 was used to compute descriptive statistics and Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. Results The performance evaluation showed that players covered, in average, 2706.3 (SD=220) meters, enabling to realize that 12.6% had a medium performance, 16.1% have a good performance and the two highest ratings, Excellent and Superior, both represented 35.6%. Differences, statistically, significant were found in some anthropometric measures, namely, waist circumference (p=0.045), the suprailiac skinfold (p=0.000) and biceps skinfold (p=0.001), when performance was considered. Relatively to eating habits, statistically, significant differences were not found in all parameters: protein, fat, carbohydrate, water, dietary fiber, vitamin D and magnesium (p>0,05). Conclusions Players with greater waist circumference have a lower performance and players with bigger biceps suprailiac skinfold have lower performance. These differences may be due to the effect of body fat. However, further studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis