Effect of core exercises on balance and vertical jump of 12-14 aged female volleyball players

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of the 8-weeks core training program on balance and vertical jump in female volleyball players. 24 female volleyball players aged 12-14 (12 in experimental group, 12 in control group) voluntarily participated in the study. While the core training program and routine volleyball training was applied to the experimental group for 8 weeks, 3 days in a week/ 60 minutes per day, only routine volleyball training was applied to the control group for 8 weeks. Balance and vertical jump tests were applied to the subjects before (pre-test) and after (post-test) 8 weeks core training program. Paired and Independent Samples t Tests on SPSS 22.0 program were used for statistical analysis. There was a significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test in terms of balance and vertical jump values of the experimental group (p <0.05). While there was no statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test of the control group in non-blind standing stork test (p> 0.05), there was significant difference in blind stork test and vertical jump tests (p <0.05). When the change between the groups was examined by looking at the difference of the pre-posttests, non-blind stork test was 3.73 cm, blind stork test was 2.45 cm and vertical jump test was 2.50 cm. After 8 weeks of core training, a significant difference was found between the two groups' balance and vertical jump values (p <0.05). As a result, it could be said that the core training program has positive effects on balance and vertical jump when applied with volleyball training.