The 6th Congress of Exercise and Sport Sciences

Fencing Training Effect on Children Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Lydia Czuckermann Hatuel
Physical Education Department, The Academic College at Wingate, Netanya, Israel

Background: The present article relates to the impact of a Fencing Training Program applied on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as a therapeutic model for ameliorating the anomalous symptoms of the disorder. The correlation between Physical Activity (PA) and the benefits of mitigating ADHD symptoms is a common fact, while the added value of warrior skills reflected by martial arts such as fencing on various areas of personality domains is a relative new terrain of research in the literature.

Aims: The aims of the research were to examine the impact of a fencing training program on moderating ADHD symptoms, and especially whether specific fencing PA assists in ameliorating attention, concentration and the interaction among those factors over a population of children diagnosed as having ADHD symptoms. Moreover, the research examined whether there is any extra value to fencing over general physical activity programs.

Methods: The study, based on Czuckermann (2016), was carried out for nine months (90 min biweekly sessions) and included two groups (n= 20, 10 boys and 10 girls each) with a mean age of 10 at the beginning of the study. The experimental ADHD group was termed Fencing Training Experimental Group (FTEG); the control group was termed Physical Activity Control Group (PACG). The tool used in the research for evaluation of the behavioral results was the ADHD RS IV Questionnaire, completed by the participants pre- and post-intervention. For evaluating the physical effect of the fencing training program relative to general physical activity, the Eurofit Fitness Testing Battery was chosen as the evaluation tool.

Results: The inattention data as reflected from the ADHD RS IV Questionnaire indicates that the value difference between the preliminary stage and the final stage of the FTEG (193) is much greater than of the PACG (52). As for the Hyperactivity/Impulsivity characteristic, the FTEG difference (180) is slightly greater than of the PACG (162).

Conclusions: Fencing training was found to yield a higher impact on all ADHD characteristics as reflected in the ADHD Rating Scale IV Questionnaire, supporting the assumption that fencing training is superior to PA in mitigating ADHD symptoms.

Lydia Czuckermann Hatuel
Lydia Czuckermann Hatuel
Wingate








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