Do Height Always Makes Might?

Deconstructing the Height Hype in Female

Sprinters.
Airnel T. Abarra*
It is always common maxim that the taller the athlete, the better. In a basketball
fanatic-country like the Philippines, mainstream sport media mostly portray tall
athletes on a positive light while shorter ones are only get noticed when they have
shown higher points and still put on a comical perspective when citing the latters
performance.
In Athletics, 100m sprints has been the gold standard for fastest athlete. For more
than 20 years, Philippines havent won gold medal in Asian Games in the 100m
distaff race. Do we think that our female athletes are short enough not to win the
female century dash in Asiad? Let us try to a mini-meta analysis on different studies
about the topic.
In relation to anthropometric measurement of sprinters, Uth (2005) found out that
there are no optimal height for sprinters thus being too tall or too short can be a
disadvantage. Watts et. al. (2012) on the other hand proved that the body shape or
somatotype of the athlete in sprinting should be the basis for selecting potential
athletes. Shorter athletes have also powerful strides on shorter races and can move
to a greater frequency whereas tall sprinters runs faster in the longer sprint races.
(Schiffer, 2009)
It also implied that stride frequency among women which is greater to shorter
sprinters is significant in better performance in the sprints. Stressing that shorter
women of stronger build performs faster and suggested that coaches should focus
their training programs in enhancing the female athletes stride frequency. (ParuzelDyja et. al. 2006)
The problem of taller female sprinters relies on the excessive lateral movement
resulted from taller structure and with a wider hips causes them more lateral
displacement while running and the center of the gravity travels on an S shape
pattern during acceleration thus having a taller woman sprinter can be a
disadvantage even if someone can is as tall like Usain Bolt at 196cm.
The studies reviewed shows that height is not always a gold standard for the
success of female sprinter. It is still dependent on the sprinting form and technique
which is rooted to different principles of Biomechanics. It is also seen on the studies
presented that strength and conditioning is more important in improving the
sprinting capability of an athlete as compared to paying attention on the athletes
height.
This hype for taller athlete can be traced as well on how we see our sporting
culture in the Philippines. The portrayal of popular culture that being tall as a sign of
sound body beats the purpose of diversity among athletes. As coaches, we should
go away from perceptions and rely on data from different studies with doing talent
identification and organizing the training programs especially for female athletes.
Comments are welcome by contacting the author at: airnel.abarra@gmail.com

References:
Paruzel-Dyja, M. Walaszcyk, A. & Iskra J. (2006) Elite Male and Female Sprinters'
Body Build, Stride Length, and Stride Frequency. Studies in Physical Culture and
Tourism. University School of Physical Education in Katowice, Poland. 13, 1, 33-37
Schiffer, J (2009) The Sprints New Studies In Athletics by International Association of
Athletics Federations. 24:1 7-17
Uth, N. (2005) Anthropometric Comparison of World-Class Sprinters and Normal
Populations. Department Of Sport Science, University Of Aarhus, Aarhus N, Denmark
- Journal Of Sports Science And Medicine (2005) 4, 608-616
Valcicak, D. and LoRusso S. (2013) Spectrum: Journal of Student Research at St.
Francis University, Loretto, PA . 3, 4-11
Watts, AS, Coleman, I & Nevill, A (2012) The changing shape characteristics
associated with success in world-class sprinters. Journal of Sports Sciences . Vol. 30,
Iss. 11, 2012

*- Airnel T. Abarra is currently a part-time faculty member at the Department of

Physical Education-Ateneo de Davao University and Head Coach of the Track Team
of the said school. Also Mr. Abarra is one of the pioneering writers of
PinoyAthletics.info