Body composition in professional and amateurs rugby players

In rugby there is a close relationship between body size of athletes, body composition and sporting success, both individually and as a team. The determination of anthropometric characteristics may then become an important instrument for the selection of athletes by managers and coaches. The analysis presented here aims to investigate the variability of body composition in athletes of professional and amateur level, taking into account the differences determined by role played by players. The results are evaluated considering also frequency and duration of training sessions conducted weekly by professionals and by amateurs. The sample consists of 66 athletes, aged between 18 and 35 years. Professional athletes are 38 (28 Forwards and 10 Backs) and amateur athletes 28 (17 Forwards and 11 Backs). The anthropometric characteristics presented here are height, weight and those that are useful to calculate body composition (skifolds: triceps, pectoral, axillary, subscapular, suprailiac, abdominal and thigh) using the equations of Jackson & Pollock (1978), suggested as valid for athletes (Sinning 1996), and Siri. Through a questionnaire has been possible to determine number and hours of weekly training. Professional athletes show higher heights, less body fat and more muscular mass in comparison with amateur athletes. The differences between the roles denote higher values of height, weight, lean mass and also fat mass in forwards than backs. In conclusion, we can detect a similar trend in anthropometric characteristics and body composition in the comparison of roles in the two grade levels. These differences are more pronounced in professional athletes suggesting a guideline in considering the character issues and selective for the success of the discovery of new talents.