The relationship between foot arch and physicall fitness among young triathletes

Purpose: Different foot arches could influence ground reaction force or motor skills in children generally, so the purpose of our research was to determine the relation among foot arches and physical fitness in young triathletes’. Methods: In order to evaluate young athletes’ fitness it was used ARISTO protocol. According the protocol athletes’ maturity was assessed by Tanner scale. We evaluated athletes training experience, anthropometrical data, athletes’ general physical fitness: long jump, 4x10 m shuttle run, 20 m shuttle run test, and specific tests for triathlon physical fitness: 200 m and 400 m running and 100 m, 400 m and 800 m swimming tests. The medial longitudinal foot arch was evaluated according to arch angle by Clarke. Results: Correlation analysis shows that normal foot arch has relation among athletes’ maturation stage (r = - 0.578, p = 0.008), height (r = - 0.496, p = 0.026) and lean body mass%, (r = - 0.472, p = 0.036). We found no relation between high and low foot arch and anthropometrical tests. Analyzing relationship among general and specific fitness tests results and different feet arches groups we established no relations among all the foot arch groups and physical fitness tests. Conclusion: We found no relation among all the foot arch and physical fitness tests results in young triathletesVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŠvietimo akademij