The relationships between physique and throwing ability in high school baseball players

Abstract

There is little information on anthropometric measures (i.e., length, breadth and girth of body's parts) related to throwing ability. To clarify the influence of the physique on the throwing ability, the relationships between physique and throwing distance, as well as ball speed were investigated. The subjects were fourty-nine high school baseball players, and thirty-eight high school volleyball players, football players and canoeists served as a control group.
The throwing distance was significantly related to lean body mass (r=.290), chest girth (r=.416), upper arm girth (r=.307), abdominal girth (r=.288), thigh girth (r=.327) and lower leg girth (r=.285) in baseball players group (p<0.05-0.01). A significant relationship between the throwing distance and foot length in control group (r=.329, p<0.05) was demonstrated. Significant relationships between ball speed and standing height in the baseball players group (r=.354, p<0.01) and that between ball speed and Impedance in the control group (r=-.288, p<0.05) were observed.
These findings indicate that the throwing distance is influenced by quantity of body muscle in baseball players. There was no relation between physique and throwing ability in unskilled players.