Anatomical and physiologic characteristics to predict football ability

Abstract

In a prospective study of 56 scholarship players at the Univer sity of Arkansas in 1976, 14 anatomical and physiologic mea surements were carried out on each of the 56 players, to include certain orthopaedic strength, power, and balance tests, and compared to the coaches' subjective ratings of football ability in an effort to determine which characteristics best correlate to the athlete's true performance. The correlation matrix for the criterion measure and the predictor variables of selected anatomical strength, balance, and power measures are presented, and the results of the study indicate that genu varum (0.445) and tibial torsion (—0.33) had the highest correlation with the coaching criterion variable. The average tibial torsion was 42.6 for these scholarship ath letes, while normal average tibial torsion among a nonscholar ship group was 27.40 degrees. Other anatomical characteristics measured, as well as strength and power measure, could not reach the critical level of ±0.263 to be significant at the 0.05 level, although horsepower was close (0.255). The Margaria- Kalamen power test was significantly related to the 40-yard dash, and a moderately good measure of football ability.