Analysis of Athletic Fitness of Elementary Schools Who Participated in Sports Talented Gifted Education Program

Abstract

Purpose: Analyze enhancement in athletic fitness of male/female elementary school students who participated in a sports talented gifted youth education program. Methods: Korea Sports Talent Assessment System was used to measure physique and athletic fitness of 50 elementary school students in grade 2-6 (male: 30, female: 30) who participated in 27 week 2014 Gifted Youth Athletes Program of C University. two-way ANOVA was performed to analyze the interactions among independent variables and independent samples t-test was performed on variables that exhibited an interaction. Also, paired sample t-test was performed to conduct a before/after test on the effect of the program on students. Results: First, Two-way ANOVA on athletic fitness on the students showed that: for gender, a significant change was found in upper limb muscle endurance, lower limb endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance and flexibility; for before/after effect, a significant change was found in upper limb muscle endurance, upper limb flexibility, abdominal endurance, lower limb muscle endurance, agility and flexibility; for gender and before/after effect, a significant change were found in upper limb muscle endurance. Second, an analysis on the difference between athletic fitness of male and female student showed that a significant change was found in upper limb muscle endurance, upper limb flexibility, abdominal endurance, lower limb muscle endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance, agility and flexibility for male students; and upper limb muscle endurance, upper limb flexibility, abdominal endurance, and flexibility for female students. Third, an analysis of before/after effect of the program on the students showed that a significant change was found in upper limb muscle endurance after the program; lower limb flexibility, after the program; cardiorespiratory endurance, after the program; and flexibility, both before and after the program. Conclusion: The conclusion of this research shows that the gifted youth education program enhanced athletic fitness of both male and female students. It implies that various athletic activities and sports major education programs can help enhance athletic fitness of elementary school students with athletic gift.