Anthropometric Characteristics, Physical Fitness and Motor Coordination of 9 to 11 Year Old Children Participating in a Wide Range of Sports

Abstract

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to investigate to what extent 9 to 11 year old children participating in a specific sport already exhibit a specific anthropometric, physical fitness and motor coordination profile, in line with the requirements of that particular sport. In addition, the profiles in children with a different training volume were compared and possible differences in training hours per week between children from a low, moderate, and high level of physical fitness and motor coordination were investigated.Methods and ResultsData of 620 children, 347 boys and 273 girls, who participated in the Flemish Sports Compass were used. Only the primary sport of each child was considered and six groups of sports (Ball sports, Dance, Gymnastics, Martial arts, Racquet sports and Swimming) were formed based on common characteristics. Measurements consisted of 17 tests. Independent T-tests and Mann-Whitney U-tests revealed few differences between the groups of sports and the discriminant analyses with the moderate and low active group did not show any significant results (p > .05). However, when discriminating among the high active children, a 85.2 % correct classification between six groups of sports was found (Wilks’ Λ = .137 and p < .001). Finally, children performing under average on the tests spent significantly fewer hours in sport per week (2.50 ± 1.84 hours) compared to the children performing best (3.25 ± 2.60 hours) (p = .016) and the children performing above average (2.90 ± 1.96 hours) (p = .029) on physical fitness and motor coordination.DiscussionThe study showed that in general, children at a young age do not exhibit sport-specific characteristics, except in children with a high training volume. It is possible that on the one hand, children have not spent enough time yet in their sport to develop sport-specific qualities. On the other hand, it could be possible that they do not take individual qualities into account when choosing a sport.

Differences in the motor coordination abilities among adolescent gymnasts, swimmers, and ice hockey players

“…The research includes two important age-and sport-related contributions. Firstly, in the study by Opstoel et al [13], the athletes were 9-11 years old, whereas the current study involved older athletes (i.e. 11-14 years old).…”

“…More specifically, the current study was designed to extend the findings of Opstoel et al [13], also by investigating whether children and adolescents who intensively engage in different sports demonstrate variation in motor coordination skills as measured by the KTK-test battery. The research includes two important age-and sport-related contributions.…”

“…However, to our knowledge, there is only one study so far investigating if there are differences in motor coordination skills of children and adolescents engaging in different sports. Opstoel et al [13] reported that 9-11-year-old children who participated in martial arts had significantly lower motor coordination when compared with those practising dance, ball games, gymnastics, racquet sports, and swimming. However, significant differences were only identified in the moving sideways test of the KTK-test battery [8,9].…”

The relationships between gross motor coordination and sport-specific skills in adolescent non-athletes

“…In addition, the relationship has also been investigated between the degree of motor coordination and performance in different sports [11], such as tennis [12,13], table tennis [14], soccer [15], gymnastic [16,17], judo [18], and volleyball [19]. Overall, these findings have suggested that the degree of motor coordination is an important predictor of sports performance in youth athletes.…”

Anthropometric and physical fitness parameters versus specific performance tests in Brazilian field hockey athletes: a pilot study

“…However, physical fitness in sport has a more specific definition, and its correlation with performance has been investigated in previous studies [2,9,13,23,24,27]. In this sense, some components needed to practice field hockey at a high level of performance are: agility to perform quick changes of direction without loss of speed, efficiency to recover between sprints, endurance of the stabilizing muscles of the spine to maintain the adopted posture during practice, and technical skills [18].…”