Anthropometric, strength, and power predictors of sprinting performance

Background. The purpose of this study was to examine relations between spri nting performance (i,e, average velocity within both the initial accelerati on and maximum speed phases of sprint running) and some standard anthropome tric, strength, and power tests. methods. Twenty-four male students of physical education were timed over th e distances of 0.5-15 m and 15-30 m front the sprint start. Several measure s of muscle isometric strength (knee extensors, hip extensors and flexors) and power (height of the counter movement jump and the average power of leg extensors during continuous jumping) were also collected, in addition to t he lean body mass and the percentage of both muscle and fat tissue. Results. The results obtained demonstrated that, except for the height of t he counter movement jump, all correlation coefficients between the selected variables and sprinting performance were low and, therefore, insignificant , As a consequence, multiple correlation coefficients were also low (0.43 a nd 0.56 for the initial acceleration and maximal speed phase, respectively) . Conclusions. Most of the standard anthropometric, strength and power test s could be poor predictors of sprinting performance. A better assessment of sprinting performance could be based on more specific tests that, unfortun ately, require more complex measurements.