The Effect of Twelve-Week Karate and Salsa Dance Training on the Physical Fitness Performance of University Students

This study was performed to determine the effect of 12-weeks Karate and Salsa Dance training on the physical fitness performances of university students. A total of 124 students (age: 21.35 ± 1.59 year; height: 1.70 ± 0.08 cm; body weight: 67.1 ± 10.78 kg) have voluntarily participated in the study. The participants were divided into three groups using a random coin toss. The numbers of Karate group (KG), the Salsa Dance Group (SDG) and Control Group (COG) are 43 people (20 female, 23 male), 40 people (17 female, 23 male) and 41 people (12 female, 29 male), respectively. Technical training programs including two days a week and 90 minutes a day for 12 weeks were applied to the KG and SDG members accepting to the study. Body weight, height measurement, BMI calculation, bass stick balance test, handgrip strength test in upper and lower extremity strength measurements, wall squat leg strength test and plate tapping test for movement speed were performed to all participants before and after 12 weeks training. Since the data did not show normal distribution, Kruskal Wallis test was used in more than two groups and Mann Whitney-U test was used in binary comparisons. Looking at the results of KG and SDG, it was found that the BMI and muscle strength values of KG were better than the SDG values (p= .00). It was determined that the static balance values of SDG were higher than KG (p= 0.00). However, there was no significant difference between the movement speed of both groups (p> .05). All physical fitness parameters of both groups were found to be better than COG. We can suggest that sedentary individuals can benefit from karate technique training in gaining muscle strength. In addition, we can emphasize that it may be more appropriate to use salsa dance training in the development of static balance.