Objective:

To identify the anthropometric measures in elite athletes men's volleyball in juvenile categories that comprised the juvenile and adult Brazilian teams of the sport.

Methods:

This study was descriptive in nature, had its sample of 92 athletes of male Brazilian teams that competed in the South American Championships and World Championships (Children and Youth) between the years 1995‐2005 and were subsequently selected or not for the Youth and Adult selections. The following variables were investigated: age, height, body mass, circumference, skinfold thickness, bone diameters, percentage of body fat, fat mass, fat‐free mass and somatotype. Descriptive statistics consisted of mean and standard deviation values. The relationship between the variables related to participation in the selections used the chi‐square test and to check the difference between the mean values of body composition and anthropometric measurements between the groups used the “t” test. We adopted a 5% significance level.

Results:

Anthropometric characteristics of volleyball athletes are similar regardless of the category, especially the tall, low values of body fat percentage and mesomorphic ectomorph somatotype. The selected athletes had lower skinfold triceps, calf and abdomen when compared to non athletes selected, as well as percentage of body fat and fat mass.

Conclusion:

Height high, low percentage of values and body fat weight, and low values of the triceps skin folds, calf and abdomen are identified as the anthropometric measures in men's volleyball elite athletes.