Investigation of the Effect of Short-Term Karate Training on Walking Ability in Visually Impaired Children

This study investigated the effect of 6-week karate training on walking skills, a locomotor skill, in visually impaired individuals aged 10-14. A total of 20 visually impaired individuals participated in the study. Ten participants were included in the karate group (5 boys, five girls) and 10 in the control group (6 boys, four girls). The karate group received karate training in addition to physical education classes one day a week for six weeks, while the control group only attended physical education classes and continued their daily lives. The study was collected with measurements made before and after the 6-week training. To evaluate the walking skills of the visually impaired individuals, a 10-meter walking test was performed on a walking line that could be felt on the soles of the feet, and the participants' 10-meter walking time, step length, and step number values were recorded. Before the measurements, the participants' parents were informed, and a consent form was obtained. SigmaPlot 11.0 program was used for data analysis. In the pre-and post-test comparisons, the Paired t-test was used for normally distributed data, and the Wilcoxon test was used for non-normally distributed data. A t-test was used for normally distributed data in comparing two independent groups, and the Mann Whitney-U Test was used for non-normally distributed data. According to the findings, there was no statistically significant difference between the 10 m walking pre-test results of the karate and control groups with and without glasses. When the post-test values were analyzed, a statistically significant difference (p