Relationship between some motoric and anthropometric characteristics of elite badminton players and smash speed

Introduction and Aim: Players must have general knowledge on how to increase their skills of movement and performance and sufficient information on how to develop their motor features. Moreover, it is needed to determine the impacts of traning on morphological structure and to define anthropometric measures in order to observe players performances. The objective of this study is to examine the relations between some motor and anthropometric characteristics and the smash speed of some elite badminton players. Material and Method: In this study, correlational survey model which is one of descriptive survey models was used. The population of the research group is constituted by 29 players including 11 males (% 37.9) and 18 females (% 62.1) from adults and junior category in Erzincan. Criterion sampling method was used in the selection of the participants. Necessary permissions were obtained from the Erzincan Provincial Directorate of Youth Services and Sports and from the parents in order to collect the data and perform the measurements. In order to collect the anthropometric data, body weight measurement, length measurements, height measurements, leg lenght measurements, diameter measurements (upper extremity diameter measurements, shoulder width, humerus bicondular diameter, wrist diameter, biiliac diameter, lower extremity diameter measurements, femur bicondular diameter, ankle diameter), circumference measurements (biceps circumference, biceps-flexed-circumference, calf circumference, thigh circumference measurement) were conducted. Vertical jump test, flexibility test, leg strength test, random test, fatigue index, radar gun were used in order to collect motoric data. In the analysis of the data, the kurtosis-skewness and standardized Z scores of the data set were evaluated. In the study, Pearson Correlation Test was used to examine the relationship between anthropometric and motoric characteristics and smash speed. Results: According to the anthropometric measurements, a significant relationship was determined between the jumps on the spot, strides and jumps, overhead the target smash speed performed by adults players; and scissors move, on the spot overhead and backhand smash speed performed by junior players. No significant relationship could be determined between the untargeted and backhand smash speeds in adults, and between the targeted and untargeted smash speeds by stepping and jumping in juniors. On the other hand, according to the motoric measurements, a significant difference was found between on the spot overhead performed by adults, untargeted and backhand smash speeds, and between on the spot overhead and backhand smash speeds performed by the juniors while doing the scissors movement. No significant relationship was found between the scissors movement, stepping and jumping and target smash speeds performed by adults, and between the target and untargeted smash speeds performed by juniors by stepping and jumping. Conclusion: According to the anthropometric features; the smash speed increases, as the height, shoulder width, elbow diameter, biceps circumference and flexed biceps circumference increase in the category of adults, as the shoulder width and chest diameter increase in the category of juniors; however, as the ankle diameter and flexibility increase in adults, the smash speed decreases. According to motoric features, smash speed increases as the vertical jump maximum, vertical jump average, leg strength, back strength, maximum power, minumum power, average power and the fatigue index increases in adult category; while the smash speed increases as vertical jump maximum, vertical jump average and minimum power increase in juniors.