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Influence of Hand Anthropometry and Nutrient Intake on Hand Grip Strength: A Correlational Study Among Young Indian Badminton Players

Badminton is a fast shuttle-racquet game, which requires adequate endurance and agility for hitting shots. For consistent and superior performances, players need to develop decent nutritional status and tremendous physical fitness. The present study concerns with the effect of anthropometric indices and nutritional profiles on arm strength for racquet gripping. Adolescent male (N=100) and female (N=100) badminton players aged 10 to 15 years were selected from Nagpur, India, and arm anthropometric indices and skeletal muscles of the players were determined by tape and bioelectrical impedance analyzer respectively. Muscle growing macronutrient (protein) and skeletal developing micronutrients (calcium and phosphorus) were calculated from dietary data for consecutive 3 days by the 24-hour dietary recall method. Arm strength was appraised from the hand grip strength test. Statistically, the assessed data were tested at 1% and 5% significance levels. Pearson correlation coefficients were derived. All the age groups possessed substantially shorter arm lengths (2.41-15.43%) than reference standards. Older groups appeared to have greater arm circumferences (1.00-3.92 cm) than younger groups. Overall, boys showed elevated skeletal muscles (6.69% and 8.29%) than girls. Dietary protein and phosphorus ingestion were significantly higher (45.42-90.88% and 16.18-40.62%) than recommended dietary allowances (RDAs). Calcium intake (23.26-28.48%) was below the RDA. Older male players performed under excellent grade (38%) in the hand grip strength test, depicting masculine supremacy. Positive correlations (r= 0.0710 to 0.5947) between arm anthropometry and nutrient intake with grip strength proved their affirmative effects on delivering various explosive shots, which can enhance the performance level of emerging young players.