Examining the effects of 8-week volleyball training on balance, vertical jump performance and empathy skills in 11-13-year-old female volleyball players

The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of Balance, Vertical Jump and Empathy on female students aged 11-13 who study at TÜPRAŞ Primary School affiliated with Batman Provincial Directorate of National Education and receive regular volleyball training. The population of the research consists of students studying at TÜPRAŞ Primary School in the 2023-2024 academic year. The sample of the research consists of a total of 50 students, 25 in the experimental group and 25 in the control group, who participated in the research voluntarily. "Personal Information Form" was used to collect data on the demographic characteristics of the students. In order to measure the empathy of the students, the "Cambridge Behavior Scale (Empathy Scale)" and 8-week training to increase their balance and vertical jump performances were conducted. After the surveys and trainings were applied, the SPSS 22.0 software package was used to facilitate statistical analysis. Various statistical techniques such as frequency analysis, percentage analysis, arithmetic mean, T-test (Paired Samples T-Test analyzes with Student) were used to analyze the data. According to the findings of the research, it was observed that the 8-week jumping and balance performance training and empathy training given to the experimental group had significant and positive effects. The differences between the pre-test and post-test results show that there is a significant improvement in favor of the experimental group in all three parameters (jumping, balance and empathy). This situation emphasizes that training programs have positive effects on student performance and the importance of training. In particular, jumping and balance performance training provided significant improvements in physical parameters, while empathy training was effective in increasing social-emotional skills. As a result, it can be said that structured and goal-oriented education programs contribute to student development and it would be beneficial to use such programs more widely in educational processes. Keywords: Training, self respect, motivation, sport, volleyball.