Impact of 12 weeks DRY-land training on freestyle and backstroke swimming performance, some antropometric characteristics and motor performance development in swimmers in 8-10 age group

Objective: The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of 12 weeks of dryland trainings on freestyle and backstroke swimming performance, anthropometric characteristics and motor performance development in swimmers in 8-10 age group. Method: The research has been arranged in accordance with non-equivalent control group pre-posttest model which is a type of quasi-experimental design. A total of 48 children, aged 8-10 years, participated in this study. Participants included in the study consisted of two groups, namely the experimental group performing swimming and dry-land trainings simultaneously, and the control group performing only swimming training. In the study; freestyle and backstroke performance tests, anthropometric measurements and motor performance tests were used as data collection method. In addition to swimming, dry-land training program was applied to the experimental group for 12 weeks. During the dry-land training applied to the experimental group, additional swimming training was applied to the control group. The data obtained from the experiments, its arithmetic-average, standard deviation and frequency-percentage distribution were used in paired-independent t tests in order to determine the significance levels among the variables. Results: According to the statistical results of the research, no significant difference was found between the pre-test values of the experimental and control groups (p> 0.005). A significant difference was found between the post-test values of the experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental group (p <0.005). Conclusion: In the research, it was concluded that experimental group swimmers who have 12 weeks of land training along with swimming training, freestyle (25m-50m) and backstroke (25m-50m) performances, some anthropometric features and some motor capacity performances showed more development and progress than swimmers who are control group. As a result, it can be said that the swimming training and dry-land training practices will positively affect the swimming performance. Key words: Swimming, dry-land training, swimming performance, motor performance