Anthropometric Characteristics and Somatotype of Dragon Boat Paddlers

Abstract

Introduction: Dragon Boating is a paddle-driven water sport that originated in China over 2000 years ago. Dragon Boat racing was a part of Chinese traditional culture .Dragon Boat racing has become a popular folk sport across the world. Methods: 29 Female and 36 male paddlers of the Indian National Dragon Boat team who participated in the 16th IDBF World Dragon Boat Racing Championship 2023 at Pattaya, Thailand were measured for their physical characteristics and body composition before their participation at a national training camp at Kolkata, India. Heath-Carter method(1967) was followed for Somatotyping.  Durnin and Womersley (1974) equation was used to calculate body composition and Siri (1956) equation was followed for calculation of Fat %. Results: Average age, height, weight , Fat % and Somatotype of male Dragon Boat paddlers were 26.6(±6.9), 170.1(±5.2), 68.1(±9.1),16.9 %, and  3.4(±1.4)-5.0(±0.9)-2.1(±1.0) respectively whereas those of Female Dragon Boat paddlers were 21.9(±4.5) , 162.0(±6.5), 58.9(±12.8), 29.7(±4.9), and 5.6(±1.5)-3.5(±1.2)-2.4(±1.4) respectively. Conclusion: Indian National Female Dragon Boat Racing paddlers were Endomorphic with low muscularity in average whereas the Male National Dragon Boat Racing paddlers were Mesomorphic with more adiposity in average.