Kinathropometric profile of recreational taekwondo athletes

The purpose of this study was to profile recreational taekwondo athletes in terms of somatotpye and body composition. Subjects (10 males and 10 females) were recruited from local taekwondo clubs in London, UK. Measurements taken included height, weight, girths, breadths and skinfold thicknesses at 6 sites. Body composition was expressed in terms of reverse ponderal index (RPI), sum of skinfolds as well as proportional weight and proportional sum of skinfolds. The data were analyzed by T-tests with a Dunn-Sidak-adjusted alpha. Although no difference was found in somatotype attitudinal distance (SAD) (P>0.05), the women had a higher endomorphy (6.3±1.5) rating than the men (4.2±1.1) (t=-3.485, P=0.011). No differences were found in the meso- and ectomorphy components (P>0.05). There was no difference in RPI, indicating that the women did not carry more weight for height. However, the females (135.8±34.9 mm) had a significantly higher absolute sum of six skinfolds than the males (77.0±23.2 mm) (P=0.002) even when scaled to Phantom height (68.7±8.3 mm and 62.3±5.7 mm for women and men, respectively) (P