Abstract
The study focuses on selected somatic indicators of the top Czech and world athletes in white water slalom. Mainly we have focused on measuring basic anthropometric data such as weight, height, arm span and Quetelet - Bouchard index.
The aim of this study was to find out selected somatic factors of recent white water canoeists and compare them with previous measurements. The study relies on results of 2 round of measurements, first was conducted in 2004 and the second one in 2010.
The observed sample 1 consisted of 26 athletes from the Czech Republic. The observed sample 2 consisted of 84 athletes who took part in the 1st World Cup in white water canoeing, organized from18th to 20th June 2010, in Prague Troja.
For the evaluation of somatic factors we used standardized methods for basic description of body composition and proportionality evaluation, and which form the basis for study of morphological - functional relationships (Riegrová, Přidalová & Ulrychová, 2006). We used descriptive statistical methods for basic characteristics and the ANOVA method for comparison of the significance.
The qualitative analysis of the movement and our results indicate that for more perfect and efficient realization of motor skills the higher value of arm span is an advantage. It is the significant condition for single canoeist to achieve the top performance.