PHYSICAL, MATURATIONAL AND TRAINING CHARACTERISTICS OF PRACTITIONERS OF RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS IN THE CITY OF CAMPO GRANDE-MS

Success in Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG) permeates an ideal physical type of gymnasts, with a body constitution that demands low body fat and an ectomorphic somatotype associated with long hours of training and years of practice. The objective of the study was to describe the anthropometric, somatotype, maturational and training characteristics of rhythmic gymnastics practitioners in the city of Campo Grande-MS. It is a cross-sectional study of a descriptive nature, composed of 102 practitioners aged 9 to 16 years, beginner and intermediate level. The sample was divided into two groups based on the median of the general performance score obtained from the motor performance tests: lower performance group (GMED: below the median; n=51) and higher performance group (GMAD: above the median; n=51). Questionnaires were used to obtain personal and training information. Anthropometric evaluation (weight, height, adiposity folds, perimeters and diameters) followed the ISAK standardization. Body composition was measured by the bioimpedance analyzer (BIA InBody s10) and the somatotype used 10 anthropometric measurements (Heath and Carter, 1990). To evaluate the biological maturation, the maturational offset and the occurrence of menarche were used. Motor performance was evaluated with Physical Ability Testing (PAT). To verify the association between variables and performance, Pearson's correlation calculation was used. Subsequently, logistic regression was calculated. The research was approved by the Ethics Committee for Research with Human Beings of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, under opinion nº 4,751,202. GMAD has significantly older gymnasts (12.1±2.1 years), more practice time (70.6%) and more hours of training per week (9.9±8.1h/week) compared to GMED (p≤0.05). In terms of maturation, the GMAD is experiencing peak height velocity (PVA), while the GMED gymnasts are on average 1.5 years behind the PVA; more than half (54.9%) of the GMAD have already gone through menarche, while in the GMED only 17.6%. In the anthropometric evaluations, the GMAD showed lower values in the triceps, subscapular and supraspinatus adiposity folds (12.6±4.7mm, 9.4±4.5mm and 9.9±7mm, respectively), as well as a lower percentage of fat (20 .5±6.6%) and BMI 18.6±2.6kg/m2. However, the GMAD showed higher values of skeletal muscle mass 17.8±4.5kg. Significant differences (F=16.7; p˂0.001) were found for the somatotype, with a predominance of the central somatotype in the GMAD, and a mesoendomorphic predominance in the GMED. Logistic regression analysis shows that RG practitioners with higher endomorphy values are less likely to belong to the best performance group. In motor performance tests, the GMAD showed better results in all tests with significantly higher mean values (p<0.05). It is concluded that the lower the values of fat percentage, BMI and adiposity folds, the better the results in motor performance and, therefore, the better chance of belonging to the best performance group. Periodic anthropometric and motor performance assessments are essential in order to seek strategies for the development of physical abilities, reduction in body composition values and improvement in performance tests.