Body height prediction of young volleyball female players

Abstract

The aim of this study is to predict the „adult” body height of female volleyball players by using the method of Sherar et al. The sample of participants included 49 senior Croatian female volleyball players (22.14±1.26 years). Varibales assessed were: Body height, Body mass, Age at Peak height velocity (PHV), Coefficient of variation in PHV, Prediction of adult height, and Variation in predicted adult height. T test was used to analyze the differences between active volleyball players and drop-outs, 8 years after the first measurement of anthropometric characteristics, with the level of significance set at p≤0.05. By using the Bland-Altman method, a plot of the differences between the measured body height and the lowest predicted body height was presented. The obtained results indicate that the predictive values of adult body height in active volleyball players are lower than the actual values, i.e., drop-outs have lower values of deviation from actual adult body height. Significant differences were found between active and inactive volleyball players/drop-outs in the 4 applied variables.