Jovana Bojanić, Miloš Bojanić, Aleksandar Gadžić, Srđan Milosavljević

The development of children in the pre-school age is characterized by the context of integrality, which means that the motor, physical, cognitive and conative aspects of child development are very closely related, and development in one domain influences development in another one. The mutual relations of motor and morphological dimensions depend on endogenous and exogenous factors, and especially on the gender, age and physical activity of children. The main goal of the current research was to determine the differences in motor skills between boys who are aikido practitioners and non-sporting boys. The sample of respondents in this study consisted of 60 respondents (30 boys - aikidoka and 30 non-sporting boys) aged 6. To assess the motor ability of the respondents, a battery of seven motor tests for adults that were modified and adapted for use on pre-school children was used. In statistical data processing, descriptive statistical analysis and Mann Whitney U were used to determine the differences between groups at the level of statistical significance p <0.05. The results of the study showed that boys who trained aikido achieved statistically significantly better results in six out of seven tests for assessment of motor abilities. The boys of the examined age trained aikido for an average of two years, and thus it was therefore more likely that the effects of training would have greater effects on the motor skills of the respondents. The results obtained are not unexpected for the authors of the research because the training program used in the work with small aikidokas contains basic games, polygonal skills, exercises for the development of coordination, speed, strength and other motor abilities, and as such it the exercises were applied and perfected for many years in all applied aikido clubs.

Keywords: motor abilities, morphological characteristics, boys, girls, pre-school age.

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