•  
  •  
 

RETROSPECTIVE EVALUATION OF POSITIONAL DIFFERENCES IN BIOMETRIC DATA OF COLLEGIATE FOOTBALL PLAYERS

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Athletes in team sports like football are subjected to test batteries throughout the competitive season. Some data collected during this testing includes basic biometric parameters: height (HT); weight (WT); body fat percentage (BF%); fat free mass (FFM); resting heart rate (RHR); systolic blood pressure (SBP); and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Biometric data nonconformities may exist across teams as players are recruited for position specific purposes. However, such data are rarely analyzed by sport scientists to determine potential variation within a team considering health implications. While not as noticeably valuable as performance metrics, this biometric data may provide an insight into the overall health of players on each side of the ball as well as the whole team. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate positional variation in biometric variables collected in collegiate football players. METHODS: Biometric data was collected by trained medical professionals on 70 players from one NCAA Division I football team. Players were separated for analysis for the current study as either Offense ([O]; n = 36) or Defense ([D]; n = 34) based on their primary position played during the competitive season. Independent samples t-tests were run to determine the difference between positional (O and D) differences and each biometric variable of interest for the team. Significance of relationships was calculated at p ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: Significant differences were noted between O and D for HT (O: 185.8 ± 6.8cm, D: 180.3 ± 13.3; p = 0.03; d = 0.52), WT (O: 108.9 ± 24.1kg, D: 97.5 ± 17.4; p = 0.03; d = 0.54), and BF% (O: 21.2 ± 10.9%, D: 16.6 ± 6.7; p = 0.04; d = 0.51). No significant differences were noted between positions and FFM (p = 0.77; d = 0.16), RHR (p = 0.30; d = 0.25), SBP (p = 0.26; d = 0.27), and DBP (p = 1.00; d < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This data provides insight on the general biometric health of a Division I collegiate football team. The results suggest that O players are overall bigger, based on HT, WT, and BF% compared to D players for this collegiate team. Other than the size difference between groups, no differences existed in other biometric data (FFM, RHR, SPB, or DBP). These results indicate that other than size, all football players share similar biometric data, which could suggest that all players share equal health and cardiovascular risk during a competitive season.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS