The effect of 8 weeks of basic table tennis training on some physical and physiological features of children in the 9-12 age

Regular physical activities not only have positive effects on health, but also contribute to the development of physical, mental, emotional and social skills in many ways. This research was conducted to determine the effect of eight-week basic table tennis training on some physical and physiological values of children in the 9-12 age group. In this study, quantitavite research method and observation technique were used 30 healthy and volunteer students, in the 9-12 age group , randomly selected from the students who are included in the curriculum of the Şehit Zemçi Doğan Secondary School in the Aydıncık district of Yozgat province for the 2021-2022 academic year and who do not participate in any sports activities other than physical education classes, participated in the study. Height, weight, body mass index, flexibility, vertical jump, reaction time, 30 m sprint, 20 m shuttle run, anaerobic power and VO2max tests were used as data collection tools. On Dependent Groups t-Test was used to determine the differences between in-group pre-test and post-test values along with descriptive statistics in the evaluation of the data. The significance level was determined as p<0.05. The findings obtained from the study showed that the average of the pre-test values of the physical and physiological characteristics of the experimental group was 152,07 cm for height, 42,80 kg for weight, 18,44 kg/m2 for BMI, 0,20 sec for reaction time, 24 for flexibility. 60 cm, 25,07 cm for vertical jump, 5.78 s for 30 m sprint, 71.91 kgm/s for anaerobic power, 48,40 for 20 m shuttle run, 35,30 ml/ kg/min for VO2max. When the pre-test and post-test values of the experimental group were compared, a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) was found in flexibility, speed, reaction time, anaerobic and aerobic power parameters. When the pre-test and post-test values of the control group were compared, no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) was found regarding the parameters of the study. As a result, it was concluded that 8 weeks of table tennis training significantly improved the body fat level, flexibility, speed, reaction time, anaerobic and aerobic power characteristics of 9-12 years old children.