One educational year follow up of children's physical fitness parameters receiving clasical ballet in two different methods

In this thesis study, the aim was to investigate the physical fitness parameters of children learning ballet in the Vaganova and RAD methods. An experimental and prospective study was conducted over 28 weeks on 31 girl ballet dancers and 14 volunteer girls who did not do ballet but participated in different sports activities. Height, body weight (BW), body fat percentage (BF%), leg length (LL), passive turnout angle (PTA), and active turnout angle (ATA) were measured. Additionally, functional movement screening test (FMST), Y-Balance test (YBT), sit and reach test (SRT), hand grip strength test (HGST), and standing long jump test (SLJT) were performed. IBM SPSS 25.0 was used for statistical analysis, and decisions were made based on the normal distribution suitability according to skewness-kurtosis analysis. The measurement results before and after the 28-week period were compared using the Paired Samples T test, with a significance level of p<0.05 determined. In the group receiving ballet education, a significant increase in height, BW, and LL, and a significant decrease in BF% were observed. While no change was observed in PTA, an increase was found in right-left ATA. There was no change in FMST scores, but a decrease was observed in YBT integrated scores. An increase was observed in SRT and right HGST, while left HGST and SLJT showed a significant decrease. In the control group, a significant increase was observed in height, BW, LL, and BF%. While there were no changes in active and passive turnout angles, an increase was seen in FMST score and YBT scores. An increase was observed in SRT and HGST, while no change was observed in SLJT. In conclusion, the decrease in balance and strength in children receiving ballet education could be due to the limited weekly lesson hours and the inclusion of only technical lessons. Therefore, it is recommended to add exercises to increase balance and strength to ballet lessons for the development of physical fitness parameters. Considering that physical fitness parameters can change during this period of children's growth and development, regular measurement and evaluation at 6-month intervals is recommended. I believe that with exercise programs supporting sport-specific technical training, children's performance will improve and they will be protected from injuries.