INDICATORS OF FLEXIBILITY IN ATHLETES OF SUMÔ OF DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF BOTH SEXES

Abstract

The characteristics of the athletes' of several modalities flexibility are, most of the time, very different, tends in view the specific demands of each sport, among them the sumô. That sport arrived in Brazil with the Japanese immigrants in the beginning of the century 20, and the first championship was accomplished in 1914. The present study search to do indications about the flexibility in athletes of sumô of different categories of both sexes. They participated in the study 37 athletes being 21 men (19±7 years) and 16 women (18±4 years). In the period of the collection of the data the athletes met participating in the 1st Shape Londrinense and Paranaense of Sumô. Initially measured stature anthropometric were accomplished (EST) in cm and body mass (MC) in kg, through a metal estadiômetro, with scale of 0,5 cm and of a scale FILIZOLA with scale of 0,1 kg. The index of body mass was calculated being considered the reason of MC (kg) for the square of EST (m²). To measure the flexibility the test it was used of seat-and-reaching. The procedures followed the standardizations described by AAHPERD (1988). The test of Shapiro-Wilk was used to confirm the normality of the variables. Analyze of variance (ANOVA) it was used for the comparisons among the sexes (masculine vs. feminine) in the different categories (category takes vs. medium category), following for the test post hoc of Scheffé when P<0,05 for it analyzes of the data. The data were treated through the statistical package Statistica version 5.0. They were found statistical differences when confronted men and women in the two appraised categories, being the sex (F=5,29 and P=0,03) the decisive factor in the indicators of flexibility. The results of the present study suggest that in sumô athletes the sex demonstrates to be a decisive factor in the independent flexibility of the category in that the athlete participates.