Relationship between anthropometric parameters and throwing velocity in water polo players

Abstract

Water polo is a collective sport and efforts of high intensity are made in less duration, where the players must swim, jump, and send the ball with moments of rest or low intensity. The necessity of greater, stronger, and faster players is supported by the development in the anthropometric characteristics. The aim of this study was to establish the importance of the anthropometric factors in the throwing velocity (v), evaluated on 22 players pertaining to Spanish Selection of water polo. The references to the anthropometric profile were measured according to the protocol of the International Working Group of Kinanthropometry (ISAK), considered by literature as those recommended to characterize a population of sportsmen. The conditional evaluation was centered on the evaluation of the specific v of three types of shootings, in the swimming pool and from the distance of 5 m. The v were measured whit radar (Inc., Flat StalkerPro), with a frequency of registry of 100 Hz and with 0.045 sensitivity of m·s−1. The results show that the higher v is reached with the throwing without goalkeeper and the lower v in the throwing with goalkeeper. The corporal size through the Body Mass Index (BMI) (r=0.5), circumference of the arm (r=0.5), biacromial breadth (r=0.5) and the femur breadth (r=0.6) correlate with the throwing v with goalkeeper in players of water polo. The corporal size is confirmed as an important factor to arrive at the high performance in water polo (p<0.05).