Explosive leg power and flexibility in school children aged 6-8 years

Abstract

This pilot study has been carried out on a sample of 51 participants - children aged 6-8 years, pupils in grades 1 and 2 at Elementary School Dimkata Angelov-Gaberot in Vatasha, Kavadarci, Republic of North Macedonia. The main objectives were: 1) to assess explosive leg power and flexibility of lower back and hamstring muscles; 2) to compare these parameters by age and sex. Measurement of anthropometric characteristics (height, weight and BMI) and assessment of explosive leg power and flexibility of lower back and hamstring muscles were performed in the school. In order to examine whether data have a normal distribution, skewness and kurtosis values and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test were used. Basic mathematical and appropriate statistical methods were used to calculate descriptive statistical parameters. Student's t-test was applied to test the difference between groups formed based on age and sex. Boys in grades 1 and 2 showed better results than girls in standing long jump (SLJ) test, while girls in Grade 1 performed better in flexibility test (FT). Second graders who have been involved in Physical Education classes longer than first graders, have shown better results in SLJ test than first graders. The reason for this outcome is that second graders have practiced more and have a better performance technique that influenced the jump distance