Abstract:

This study was conducted to examine the effects of 8-week gymnastics and taekwondo training applied to 8-10 year old primary school students on balance, flexibility and jump parameters. A total of 30 students participated in the study, and the students were randomly assigned to the gymnastics group (GG=10, X̄age=8.70±0.48), the taekwondo group (TG=10, X̄age=8.20±0.42) and the control group (CG=10, X̄age=9.50±0.52). GG and TG performed their branch-specific training at 48-hour intervals, 2 days a week, for a total of 8 weeks. CG did not participate in any sports activities for 8 weeks. In order to evaluate their performance, Y dynamic balance test, flexibility test and vertical jump test were applied to the participants before and after 8 weeks. Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine the normality distribution of the data. Due to the normal distribution of the data, Paired Sample T Test was used to determine the difference within the group, and the Independent Sample T Test was used to determine the difference between the groups. As a result of the study, significant differences were found in the flexibility and jump pre-test results of GG and TG within the group (p<0.05), but no significant difference was found in CG. Although there were significant differences in favor of CG in the lower and upper extremity dynamic balance in-group comparison results of the groups, only the right leg anterior value of TG was significantly different (p<0.05). No significant difference was found in CG. As a result of the comparison between the groups, a significant difference was found in favor of GG in the lower extremity left leg composite variable (p<0.05), while there was no statistical difference in all other variables. It was concluded that gymnastics training had a higher positive effect on balance, flexibility and vertical jump parameters compared to taekwondo training.

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