Relationship Between Body Composition And Performance Measures In Division Iii

The purpose of this study is 1.) To examine mean percent body fat (BF, %) and Body Mass Index (BMI) values across three American football position groupings, skill (SK), big skill (BSK) and down linemen (LN). 2.) To examine the relationship between BF and BMI and the following performance measures: vertical jump (VJ, in.), 1-RM power clean (PC, lbs.), 1-RM back squat (BS, lbs.), 1-RM bench press (BP, lbs.), 20m sprint (20S, sec.), and pro-agility (PRO, sec.). Body composition data, (BF and BMI) were measured on 54 Division III varsity football players with a minimum of one year of participation in a collegiate strength and conditioning program. Performance measures (VJ, PC, BS, BP, 20S, PRO) were collected on 38 of the 54 athletes over three separate testing sessions within a one week period. There was a significant interaction (p < 0.001) across groups for the body composition data (n=54). A Tukey post-hoc analysis revealed the following results for BF and BMI, respectively: The LN group was significantly higher than the BSK (p = .021; p = .006) and SK (p < 0.001; p < 0.001) groups. The BSK group was significantly higher than the SK (p = .040; p = .001) group. Examination of the performance measures showed significant correlations between BF and BP (r = .494; p = .002), 20S (r = .728; p < 0.001), PRO (r = .724; p < 0.001) and VJ (r = -.630; p < 0.001). Significant correlations were found between BMI and BS (r = .393; p = .015), BP (r = .549; p < 0.001), 20S (r = .713; p < 0.001), PRO (r = .735; p < 0.001) and VJ (r = -.713; p < 0.001). Additionally, there was not a significant relationship seen between VJ and PC (r = .133, p = .427)