Dermatoglyphic profile and hand grip strength of the finalists athletes in the Brazilian Paracanoe Championship

The aim of this study was to analyze the dermatoglyphic profile and hand grip strength of the finalists in the 2012 Brazilian Paracanoe Championship. The subjects consisted of 19 paracanoe athletes divided into 5 groups according to their functional class and vessel. Cummins and Midlo protocols were used for dermatoglyphic indices (A, L, W, D10, and SQTL) and Marins and Giannichi for grip strength of right hand (DRH) and left hand (DLH). Descriptive statistics and the One Way ANOVA and post hoc test of Tukey HSD were used to compare the groups. The significance level for all tests was 5%. The dermatoglyphics showed a predominance of drawing T" in all groups with the highest average D10 (14.5 [+ or -] 2.3) in the KTA group and the higher average SQTL (159.0 [+ or -] 49.8) in the KLTA group. In the grip strength, the VLTA group showed a significant difference between the DRH and the dLh (means of 44.0 [+ or -] 9.5 and 49.3 [+ or -] 6.0, respectively). These groups showed very interesting characteristics to the practice of paracanoe and, therefore, allows for application of data directly in the training of a more specific and individualized approach to improving. Key Words: Paracanoe, Dermatoglyphic, Grip strength