Body composition and somatotype in women's football. South American Championship Sub-17

In order to analyze body composition and somatotype in women selected to participate in the national soccer teams, we studied 28 women, 19 selected from Columbia and 9 from Paraguay, with an average of 16.2 ± 0.66 years of age, participating in the South American Championship Sub 17 - Chile 2008, a qualifying event for the FIFA World Cup first category, New Zealand 2008. The evaluation followed the protocol established by the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry - ISAK. We determined the classification of total body mass in five types according to Kerr. To establish the somatotype the model proposed by Heath & Carter was used. Regarding body mass, the average kg and% of MA, MM and MO was 18.56 kg-33.28%; 21.80 kg-39.31%; 6.20 kg-11.18%. The classification of somatotype was endomorph-mesomorph, where there is an equal dominance of adiposity and muscularity on the relative linearity. The SDD of SM indicates no significant differences (p<0.05) exists among the different positions of the players, and the SDI suggests that the total group of evaluated players is homogeneous.