Evaluation of reaction time, mental toughness and some intelligence areas of individuals who exercise regularly swimming

The aim of this study is to examine the reaction time, mental toughness (MT), emotional intelligence (EI) and kinesthetic intelligence (KI) levels of individuals who do and do not swim. The sample of the study consisted of 170 people between the ages of 18-25 who do (n=85) (178,31±5,57 cm, 73,21±7,98 kg, 22,99±1,88 kg/m2) and do not swim exercise (n=85), (178,25±6,25 cm, 81,25±11,04 kg, 25,53±2,79 kg/m2). The exercise group was formed by randomly selected among those who swim 3 days a week for 12 weeks and swim at least 1000 m during one hour per session and the control group from those who newer exercised. The reaction time (RT) test, "Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire" developed by Sheard et al. (2009) and adapted into Turkish by Altıntaş (2015), "Emotional Intelligence Scale for use in Sport " which was developed by Lane et al. (2009) and adapted into Turkish by Adiloğulları and Görgülü (2015), "Self-Assessment Inventory in Multiple Intelligence Areas" developed by Howard Gardner (1983) and adapted into Turkish by Seber (2001) and "Self-Assessment Inventory in Multiple Intelligence Areas" were used as data collection tools. IBM SPSS statistical package program was used for data analysis. Independent samples t-test and Mann Whitney-U test were used for paired comparisons, and one-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis H tests were used for comparing more than two groups. Differences between groups were tested with the Tukey post-hoc test. Pearson Correlation test was used to determine the relationship between the groups, and Simple Linear and Multiple Regression analyzes were used to evaluate the effect of swimming exercise. As a result of the study, it was found that the RT and EI levels of those who do swimming exercise are statistically better than those who do not swim exercise. It was observed that there was a high positive correlation between visual and auditory RT means, a positive moderate correlation between EI and the means of MT and KI, and between the means of MT and KI. It was determined that swimming exercises negatively predicted visual and auditory RT means and positively predicted the means of EI.