Talent identification in rowing typically includes standing height (SH) and body mass (BM), because successful rowers are on average taller and heavier than their opponents. Moreover, successful elite senior rowers are significantly taller and heavier than Juniors, but it remains unclear if those athletes who became elite rowers later, were already taller and heavier as adolescents. PURPOSE: We aimed to retrospectively analyze anthropometrical differences of national team junior rowers considering their long-term career progression level and to define minimal anthropometric requirements allowing for later success. METHODS: 706 male German junior rowers (age 17.5±0.7 y) of the years 1991 - 2015 were grouped according to their highest progressive career level, more precisely U19-, U23-, Senior World Championships (WCh), or Olympic Games (OG). To analyze differences in SH and BM a one-way ANOVA with Post-Hoc test was calculated. RESULTS: Distribution for highest progressive career level were 46.7% U19- (191.0±4.6 cm, 85.5±6.1 kg) 35.6% U23- (192.3±4.7 cm, 86.5±6.7kg), 6.9% Senior WCh (192.8±4.9 cm 87.4±6.5 kg) and 10.8% OG (193.7±4.4 cm, 88.2±6.4 kg). Significant small effects in SH (F(3,702) = 9.30, p = .000, ?2 = 0.038) and BM (F(3,702) = 4.31, p = .005, Eta2 = 0.018) among progression levels were found. Rowers competing not higher than U19-WCh were smaller (-0.69 - -1.42%; p < .005) and exhibited less BM (-1.08 - -3.05%; p < .007) compared to higher progression levels. This effect increased by 0.45 % (R2 = .97) for SH and 1.01% for BM (R2 = .99) with rising progression level. No significant differences were found between U23, Senior WCh, and OG. Minimal anthropometric requirements within the higher progression levels can therefore be calculated as 188 cm SH and 80.3 kg BM. CONCLUSIONS: This finding suggest that higher SH and BM within a homogenous group of adolescent elite junior rowers are already associated with long-term career progression in international elite rowing. Minimal anthropometric requirements could be established and can be interpreted as thresholds associated with later success. However, anthropometric variables must not be solely or exclusively used for talent identification, because maturation to elite status is inherently multi-dimensional.
© Copyright 2017 Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.