To direct the children (between 8 and 10 years old) to the sports according to their somatotype and anthropometric characteristic (sample of Ankara city)

A significant issue has recently come up resulting from the fact that the identification of sport specific human models should be done at early ages because of the fact that the age level to start sports has a tendency to go down and down. It is necessary because all the scientific effords spent in latter years to develop the performance of those formerly misleaded to wrong branches of sports are useless36. The aim of this study is, considering the clear relationship between the somatotype and sports, firstly to identify the anthropometric and somatotypical characteristics of 7/14-year-old girls and boys, who have a great potential in our country, before they are leaded to sports and then to constitute a sample work for the identification of physical characteristics by defining the physical fitness properties related to the age levels. Also-through the body structure somatotypes provided - it is aimed that the children should be leaded to the correct sports that are suitable for their body structure at their early ages. The subject group of this study is comprised of 3771 (1995 boys and 1776 girls) volunteer students, who are at various secondary schools in Ankara, at the age of 9 ± 1. To define the somatotypes of the subjects who participated in the study, eleven anthropometric measurements were taken such as heigth, weight, skinfold thickness, width and etc. Heath-Carter method was used for identification of somatotypes of search groups.-156 Statistical analysis were done via SPSS 11.0. Before the measurements were analysed, the dispersions of all the measurements with age was obtained by the help of SPSS (Scatter plot) and thanks to these dispersions extreme measurement values were not included to the analysis. According to the anthropometric findings no significant difference was found in calf skinfold thickness values and ectomorph values of somatotype values between the girls and the boys who participated (P<0,05 ) the somatotype values of girls were found as 3,96-3,65-2,69 and the somatotype values of boys were found as 3,60-4,06-2,87. When we examine the somatotypes of the students of both sexes on the somatochart we found out that both boys and girls were concentrated mostly in the mesamorph-endomorph. As a conclusion if the importance of such studies is recognised and necessary attention is paid it is thought that this sort of studies, which will be done systematically in our country, will help the teams with the talent identification and talent selection at junior level and it will also help both atletes and teams to develop their performance.