THE EFFECTS OF BURIRAM RAJABHAT UNIVERSITY’S SPORTS SCIENCE PROGRAM ON THE PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE OF SPORTS SCIENCE STUDENTS

บทคัดย่อ

To be successful sports science students, it is necessary to have good physical development throughout a four-year undergraduate program. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare physical performance among all sports science students at Buriram Rajabhat University (BRU), by utilizing the basic knowledge for planning and developing an exercise program. A lot of 236 sports science students, aged between 17-22 years old, were recruited for this study; participants included both male (n=164) and female (n=72) students. The results of the baseline clinical characteristics were determined by body weight, BMI (body mass index), percent (%) of total body fat, WC (waist circumference), HC (hip circumference), SBP (systolic blood pressure), DBP (diastolic blood pressure) and HR (heart rate). Physical performance was investigated through measuring hand grip strength, back strength, leg strength, trunk flexibility, 30 second sit ups, 50 meter sprints, standing long jump, a six-minute walk test (6MWT) and running 1600 meters test.                    
          All parameters of anthropometry and physical performance were tested at the beginning (pre-test) and the end (post-test) of the first semester. The results of anthropometry testing showed no significant difference in participants other than, HR; heart rate of male and female groups decreased significantly (p<0.01). However, results of physical performance showed significant increase (p<0.05) for both groups in hand grip, back strength, leg strength, trunk flexibility, 30 second sit ups, standing long jump, six-minute walk test (6MWT) and 1600 meters. However, 50 meter sprint showed no significant difference for either group. Overall, both male and female participants showed improvement of physical performance. The present study indicated that teaching techniques of sports science programs were effective in improving the physical performance of all students in the four-year undergraduate sports science program at Buriram Rajabhat University.