Effect of Front Crawl Swimming Trainings on the Static Balance of Boys with Visual Impairment

Individuals with visual impairments have poorer balance compared to their sighted peers. The present research was carried out with the purpose of investigating the effect of front crawl swimming on the static balance in boys with visual impairments.
The current research was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design. Statistical population included 20 boys with visual impairments (aged 9 to 15 years) who were member of Society for the Blind in Arak city. The subjects were purposefully selected and randomly assigned to two equal groups. Flamingo Static Balance Test was used to evaluate static balance. The experimental group was asked to participate in front crawl swimming trainings for10-week (2 days/week). Both groups performed a pretest prior to the training period and performed a posttest 2 days after the end of the training period in the same environment. Shapiro-Wilk, independent t-, and paired t-tests were used for data analysis at the significance level of 0.95% and α≤0/05.
No significant difference was seen between experimental and control groups in the pretest of static balance (p>0.05). The paired t-test showed significant difference in the static balance in experimental group (p0.05). In the posttest, there was also a significant difference between the scores of the two groups (p The result of the present study indicated that front crawl swimming trainings improve the static balance in boys with visual impairment. Thus, it seems that use of these trainings in exercise and rehabilitation programs of these individuals can have many benefits for them.