In their plenary article in this journal 17 years ago, Gaston Beunen and Jan Borms defined "kinanthropometry" as a discipline that investigates the relationship between human structure and movement. They noted that it was considered a subject within human biology or physical anthropology, but related to the fields of physical education, sport, and recreation. "Anthropometry" is a term originally intended to interface with various other disciplines, but is now generally understood to represent surface dimensional measurements of the human physique. These involve quantifying size, proportion, shape and composition, and occasionally gross function and maturation. These measures are applied to specific areas of interest such as growth, exercise, and sports performance or nutrition. Perhaps the greatest asset within the field of kinanthropometry is that its very nature is multidisciplinary where measurements are related to biomechanical or physiological parameters, or even psychological assessments of body image. Since 1990, there has been a rich literature in the kinanthropometry discipline, much of which has been captured by the Journal of Sports Sciences. Articles have involved several novel areas of research. Some have characterized anthropometric profiles of specific athletic groups and inferences made as a result of comparison with reference ranges. Others have explored competitive athletic performance from a "best-versus-rest" or sexual dimorphism perspective. A few have compared anthropometry with other criterion methods such as magnetic resonance imaging or dual X-ray absorptiometry, and have generated body composition equations to predict fat mass and fat-free mass. Perhaps the greatest single advance has been the adoption of a global protocol for measurements by the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry in at least 40 countries. This effectively quality assures data from those scientists whose qualification involves practical examination where intra- and inter-tester technical error of measurement is quantified. This is not to say that measurements using other protocols cannot be made valid, but such standardization enables larger samples of participants to be included in some comparative studies as a result of pooling data, in the knowledge that they will be readily comparable. The future of anthropometric measurements will certainly involve a multiplicity of technologies modelling the static and dynamic body in new ways which relate to health and sports performance. So although anthropometric measurements are "low technology", their convenience and utility assures their use in the future, perhaps alongside higher technology measurements only in their infancy such as digital laser scanning. Research activity involving kinanthropometry remains buoyant, with many submissions linking to sports performance, biomechanics, and physiology. However, many submissions to the Kinanthropometry Section of this journal fail to provide a clear research question, have a weak study design, or have results that are poorly articulated and fail to convey any important meaning or implication. Perhaps the "iceberg principle" may be an appropriate analogy where such submissions remain invisible from the public domain. By contrast, those that are published have undergone a rigorous peer-review process and are exemplars which show less experienced researchers what the journal expects in its publications. In summary, papers should have something novel and important to ask and answer, which has clear relevance to others. I look forward to seeing more submissions like these.
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