Relationship Between Body Composition and Scoring Potential of Female Collegiate Soccer Players

Author

Lee Doernte, Eastern Kentucky UniversityFollow

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Creation Date

Spring 2017

Major

Fitness and Wellness Managment

Department

Environmental Health Science

Degree

Undergraduate

Mentor

Michael T. Lane

Mentor Department

Exercise and Sport Science

Abstract

Introduction Body composition is a commonly used metric believed to correlate to athletic performance. Traditional belief is that lower body fat will correlate to a better athletic performance. Purpose To examine the relationship between components of body composition and scoring potential of female collegiate soccer players during a season. Methods The Body composition of 15 female collegiate soccer players was collected using a BodPod (COSMED USA, INC., Concord, CA.) and Tanita SC-331S Total Body Composition Analyzer (Tanita Corporation of America Inc., Arlington Heights, IL). The subjects were tested on two occasions; August and February. The subjects body weight (BW), total body water(TBW), and body fat % (BF%) were collected. The subject’s games played, goals scored, assists, and total points were also tracked and published by EKU. Results Team data was BW 143.33±13.94 lbs., TBW 77.53±5.15 lbs., BF% 22.45±6.02%, Games playes16.93±3.45, Assists 0.8±1.61, Points 3.2±5.81. There were no significant correlations of P≥0.6 between body composition and scoring potential of the team. Data of forwards only showed BW 141.85±15.91 lbs., TBW 77.12±5.85 lbs., BF% 22.12±7.7%, Games played 18.8±0.45, Goals 3.4±2.88, Assists 1.8±2.49, Points 8.60±7.8. There were no significant correlations of P≥0.6 between body composition and scoring potential of the forwards. Discussion The data shows that the body composition of the female collegiate soccer player does not have significant relationship with the players scoring potential. There were no strong correlations between body weight, total body water, body fat % and games played, goals, assists, or points. Further research is needed to examine the effects of body composition on performance changes over a season on individual positions.