Predominance of Selected Anthropometric Measurements and Motor Fitness Components on Playing Ability of Basketball Players

The study was intended to select the minimum number of determinant variables (anthropometric measurements & motor fitness components) that would provide highest multiple correlation co-efficient with the criterion variable (basketball playing ability) and to compute a multiple regression equation. Twenty basketball specialization students of Annamalai University, were selected as subjects with an informed consent. The age of the selected subjects ranged from 18 through 22 years. The study was restricted to the objective assessment of selected anthropometric measurements (neck girth, axillary arm girth, biceps girth, forearm girth, wrist girth, hand length, palm length, shoulder girth, chest girth, waist girth, thigh girth, calf girth, ankle girth, foot length, foot breadth, standing height, weight) and motor fitness components (back strength, leg strength, agility, flexibility, power, speed) and subjective rating of playing ability by judges. The data thus collected have been analyzed by the procedure of Wherry-Doolittle method of multiple correlations as given by Clarke and Clarke. The results show that the obtained multiple correlations co-efficient of 0.9699 is significant at 0.05 level with a forecasting efficiency of 76%. It was also noted that the multiple regression equation derived by this study to assess the basketball playing ability from the selected determinant variables such as leg strength, axillary arm girth and width of the foot has comparatively low standard error of estimate.