Универзитет у Нишу, Факултет спорта и физичког васпитања
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to investigate the significance of the influence of
each of the selected, mutually very closely related kinanthropometric factors
(somatotype, body composition, sexual maturity, specific coordination abilities) on
the rhythmic gymnasts’ (RGs) sports performance. One hundred and twenty-six
national and international level RGs (age: 11.95±3.09 years, body height:
147.76±14.61 cm, body mass: 37.75±11.72 kg, BMI: 16.79±2.26 kg/m2, menarcheal
age: 13.57±1.18 years, training experience: 5.88±2.79 years), divided into five age
group categories (15 seniors, aged 16 years and older; 25 juniors, aged 14-16 years;
26 advanced, aged 12-14 years; 38 intermediate, aged 9-12 years; 22 beginners,
aged 7-9 years), volunteered to participate in the study. Multiple regression analysis
was applied to determine statistically significant influence of each of the selected
kinanthropometric factors on the “Success”. Namely, RGs’ somatotype, body
composition, sexual maturity and specific coordination abilities are significant
predictive factors for their performance, with a variance explanation of 11%, 13%,
14% and 38%, respectively. At univariate level, regression analysis highlights the
statistically significant independent contribution of endomorphy (at all categories,
except for the beginners), axillary hair development (only for the advanced), ball
and hoop coordination (for the intermediate), to the prediction of RGs’ Success.
This research has confirmed the importance of endomorphy for the Rhythmic
Gymnastics (RG) performance, and the negative relations among this predictive and
criterion variable unambiguously emphasized the lack of subcutaneous fat as
desirable factor for the success in RG. Also, the negative relations of almost all of
the body composition parameters and the competition results indicate that the low
percentage of body fat, long and thin limbs, and low body mass, are desirable
morphological characteristics among successful RGs. The low percentage of body
fat entails a delay in pubertal development, which is actually desirable in
conventional type of sports and is confirmed by the negative relations of each of the
examined sexual maturity parameters in the group of pubertal senior RGs and the
performance. The obtained results, i.e. the lack of the statistically significant
influence of coordination on the “Success”, in the group of junior and senior RGs,
and its presence in the group of the advanced and intermediate RGs, clearly
indicates the less important role of the specific coordination in the performance of
the older age category RGs. This does not diminish the importance of the
coordination abilities, yet it rather simply suggests the presence of more important
factors which discriminate the successful from less successful gymnasts
