Comparison of Gross Motor Skills of 8-10 Years Old Students Active in Different Sport Branches

The aim of this study was to investigate the basic motor skill levels of 8-10 years old children active in different sports branches according to TGMD-III test depending on the levels of gender and sports branches. The study encompassed 239 athletes of 8-10 age groups on a voluntary basis who had been doing sports for at least one year. The data required to achieve the objectives determined in the research were obtained using TGMD-III test protocol. Kurtosis-Skewness and Kolmagorov-Smirnov analyses were performed for normality test of data and it was found that the data were not distributed normally and so nonparametric tests were used. Mann Whitney U test was used for paired groups and Kruskal Wallis analysis was used for comparison of the others. In TGMD-III gender comparison of the athletes, a significant difference was found in total Locomotor tests, total object control and total TGMD-III (p<0.01). There are significant differences in the comparison of TGMD-III sports branch of the athletes in Locomotor tests total, object control tests total and TGMD-III overall total (p<0.01). As a result, the gross motor skills of the footballers were found to be significantly better compared to the other branches. It is thought that the difference between the branches resulted from the motoric and physiological characteristics required by the structures of the branches. In addition, sports age and training styles of the athletes are thought to have affected the measurement results.