Investigation of the effects of hip activation exercises on balance, agility, and branch-specific speed in karate athletes

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of 8 weeks of hip activation exercises on balance, agility, and sport-specific speed performance in karate athletes aged 9–13. A total of 30 athletes participated in the study and were divided into two groups: experimental and control. The experimental group received a hip activation program in addition to their routine karate training. Before and after the training protocol, the Y-Balance Test, T-Agility Test, Kick Performance Test, and KMG Speed Test were administered. In data analysis, an independent samples t-test was used to determine the differences in pre-test and post-test measurements between the experimental and control groups. A dependent samples t-test was used to examine the change between the pre-test and post-test measurements of each group. The level of significance was set at p<0.05. The findings revealed that the experimental group showed significant improvement in balance performance in all aspects (p<0,05). Significant improvement was also observed in repeated kick performance (p<0,05). Although both groups showed improvement in agility performance (p<0,05), no significant difference was observed between the groups(p>0,05). In conclusion, hip activation exercises administered before karate training were determined to be an effective method for improving balance and repetitive kick performance in child karate athletes.