The effect of 8-week thera-band exercises on male swimmers’ 100 m freestyle swimming performance

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate 8 weeks Thera-Band trainings' effects on male swimmers' 100 m freestyle swimming performance.The study group is created by 20 (n = 20) licenced male athletes that had trained at least 3 days in a week and have been active in swimming sport at least 3 years in Gebze Genclerbirligi Swimming Club 20 (n = 20). Athletes were divided into experiment group (n = 10) and control group (n = 10) randomly. Training programme was applied to the study group for 55-60 minutes for 3 days on alternate days and times when the club does not have swimming training. 12 different Thera-Band trainings were applied for 40-45 mins and each set was 15 minutes.Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze differences between groups and Wilcoxon signed rank test was applied for analyzing the differences of intra-groups. SPSS 21.0 Statistics package software was used for statistical analyzes. The results show that there are no significantly differences between experimental group's and control group's post test results. (p>0.05). Statistically significant differences are found as a result of intra-group comparison of the experimental group's pre-test and post-test results (p<0.05).Depending on the results obtained after reviewing the literature, it can be concluded that Thera-Band training is effective on the performance improvement of swimmers aged 13-15 years.