Understanding the Role of Body Composition in Athletic Performance: Insights From Cricket Fast Bowlers and Kabaddi Raiders

Body composition is crucial in athletic performance, including Cricket and Kabaddi. Skeletal muscle percentage, body fat percentage, BMI, and metabolic rate signicantly impact an athlete's ability to execute rapid movements and sustain physical exertion. This study primarily examined the body composition among Cricket fast bowlers and Kabaddi raiders. For this purpose, 25 male Cricket fast bowlers and 22 male Kabaddi raiders participated in state-level inter-collegiate tournaments were selected as study samples. Their age ranged between 18 to 25 years. The body composition variables, namely percent body fat, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat (whole body, trunk, legs, arms) and skeletal muscle percentage (whole body, trunk, legs, arms), were assessed by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) method. A simple correlation method was adopted to compute the interrelationship among the selected body composition variables of Cricket fast bowlers and Kabaddi raiders. The result revealed that Cricket fast bowlers and Kabaddi raiders possessed suitable ratio between shedding of fat percentage and building of the muscle mass.