engleski

Quantitative Changes in the Anthropological Status of Middle School Aged Pupils Over a Two-Year Period

The research was conducted with the primary aim of determining the antropometric characteristics as well as motor and functional abilities of three groups of examinees over a two-year period of organized physical activity engagement. The secondary aims were to examine each group's nutritional status and their connection to the results achieved in the functional ability evaluation. In line with the aforementioned, in the total sample which consisted of 147 pupils, one group was engaged in martial arts (karate, wrestling, taekwondo and kick- boxing), the second group in team sports played with a ball (football, handball and basketball), while the third group was physically active only on Physical Education classes. Ten variables were used for the needs of the research (Findak et al., 1996), while to process the data, the Student's t-test for dependable samples, the discriminant analysis and the correlation analysis were used. For all the three measurements, the results show the superiority of examinees – athletes compared to non-athletes. Engaging in team sports played with a ball at the age of 11 to 13 has a more positive influence on the analysed variables of the anthropological status than for peers who are non- athletes, but the same was not shown for athletes engaging in martial arts (p<0.05). The highest values of nutritional status were measured in non- athletic pupils, while lower values of the body mass index condition the better results of the six-minute run test (p<0.01). The obtained data lead to the conclusion that only regular Physical Education classes held two school hours a week cannot secure a long-term significant influence on the development of children and adolescents' kinanthropological characteristics, but it is necessary to encourage children to take part in extracurricular sport activities. Some of the reasons due to which the differences in improvements acquired by the two groups of athletes compared to the group of non-athletes were not significantly higher can be explained by inadequate work conditions and the children's lack of interest for a specific sport activity, as well as by the choice of the coaching staff.

conditioning, sport, nutritional level, Physical Education, pupils

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