Examination of Some Physical Fitness and Motor Skill Parameters of Pre-Adolescents and Adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the importance of some physical fitness and motor skills for children between 11-13 years at elementary school. A total of 114 primary school children participated as volunteers with a means age of 10.80 ± 0,40 for 5^th grade and 12.83 ± 0,38 for 7^th grade.

In this study, some motor tests were used to detect differences between pre-adolescence and adolescence on male and female. These tests were respectively: for dynamic balance “The Star excursion balance test”, for the agility “T-test”, “V sit and reach” for flexibility test and for explosive strength a “20 m run (0.1s)”. Besides, physical fitness features were taken as height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio (WHR).

The results of the flexibility showed that the female children had better performances in the 5^th grade than those in the 7^th grade children (p<0,005). In addition, it was determined that the dynamic balance performance values of the 7^th grade female and male children were better than the 5^th grade(p<0,005). There were significant differences in agility and explosive strength between the 7^th grade female and male children(p<0,005). It was observed that there was an increase in agility, speed and dynamic equilibrium performance data especially from the age of 11 in parallel with growth and development. Especially from this period, it was thought that it was possible to develop motor skills and performance parameters with some sports applications and training.