ABSTRACT
Anthropometry is the science of making surface measurements on the human body based on anatomical landmarks. It is recognised as a discipline in its own right in describing the human phenotype, and interfaces with a range of others including biomechanics, physiology and nutrition to have a role in assessing health and sports performance. Despite their apparent simplicity, acquiring the skills for making skinfold, girth or skeletal breadth measurements can be problematic, because a large number of simultaneous tasks need to be performed in a movement which lasts only a few seconds. Evidence of this complexity is readily apparent from the ten hours of practical tuition the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry requires of its instructors to induct professionals into the 17 measurements of the restricted profile (Marfell-Jones et al., 2006). However, other organisations or individuals may fail to do justice to the intricacy of measurement, either by failing to describe methods in sufficient detail for techniques to become truly standardised (WHO, 1989), or by suggesting that attempts to do so are of ‘mistaken exactitude’ in view of errors in predicting body composition from anthropometric data (Durnin, 1997). Since this time, with the advent of a global protocol (ISAK, 2001), the first concern has been addressed, and an increased emphasis on retaining raw data, rather than convert it into tissue masses or percentages (Marfell-Jones, 2001) has largely addressed the latter.
