1. Unit 5 Research Project
Worthing College Sports Science
Isabel Dunn Collins
2015
2. P2: Carry out / P4: Produce
To investigate if power and flexibility
differences exist between 16-18 female
participation standard dancers and
non-dancers.
3. Abstract
The aim of this project was to find out weather there were any differences between power and
flexibility in dancers and non-dancers, this project was interesting as I was using 2 variables and 2
samples (dancers, non-dancers)the method used to find out the differences were the sit and
reach box test and the vertical jump test,10 dancers and 10 non-dancers were used for both test
(aged 16-18), the test were conducted 3 times to collect the best average of each subject. The
results showed differences in flexibility, the dancers had more flexibility in the hips than the non-
dancers by using excel I typed in the results from each subject and calculate the
mean,medium,mode and rage, I found differences between the dancers who did other sports and
the dancers who only specialized in dance and the results showed that the dancers that did more
sports were generally more powerful but not such a big difference in flexibility, on the other hand
the power test showed that the dancers also had more power in their legs than the none dancers
and this could be due to their fitness levels as well as their training. However in the group of
none dancers I saw a difference in a few of the participants so I looked through my
questionnaires and found out that one of them did cheerleading and one of them did gymnastics
which meant that they were more flexible than the rest of the none dancers.
I.D.Collins. sports and exercise science.2015.to investigate if power and flexibility differences exist
between 16-18 female participant standard dancers and non-dancers.
P2: Carry out / P4: Produce
To investigate if power and flexibility differences exist between 16-18 female participation
standard dancers and non-dancers.
4. Contents: General
P1
P2 aim
P3 abstract
P4 general contents p1-26
P5 contents appendix
P6 contents figures and tables
P7 acknowledgement
P8 introduction
P9 literature reviews
P10 project hypothesis
p11 method
P12 data collection
P13 data analysis
P14 results
P15 discussion
p16 conclusion
P17 review 1
P18 review 2
P19 review 3
P2: Carry out / P4: Produce
P20 future recommendations 1
P21 future recommendations 2
P22 future recommendations 3
P23 future recommendations 4
P24 research project appendices
P25 appendix 1
P26 appendix 2
P27 appendix 3
P28 figures and tables
P29 figures and tables 1
P30 figures and tables 2
P31 figures and tables 3
P32 figures and tables 4
P33 figures and tables 5
6. Contents: Figures and Tables
P33 table used to collect data
P34 graph used for analysis
P2: Carry out / P4: Produce
7. Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the subjects used to conduct the two test, I would not
have been able to carry out this investigation and get good specific results
without them, also the help of other peoples research found online helped
me develop my tests to make sure no mistakes were made.
P2: Carry out / P4: Produce
8. Introduction
I am a Sport Science student and I am investigating whether power and flexibility
differences exist between 16-18 female participation standard dancers and non-
dancers.
I choose to do this project on dancers and non-dancers because all the review found
weren't the same as my aim so as far as I knew I thought it would be new helpful
research to other, dance is also my greatest interest and I am passionate.
I’m hoping the literature reviews will help my research be perfected by looking at their
research and seeing their mistakes , once I collect my data I will be able to compare it
to other data found, my project aim could possibly help dance teachers find other
ways of increasing flexibility on non-dancers and could also be used to improve further
research on flexibility and power on different individuals I found my aim at the
beginning of February 2015 and will be finishing it by April 2015.
P2: Carry out / P4: Produce
9. Literature Review and References
https://worthingsportscience.wordpress.com/20
15/03/23/unit-5-literature-review-isabel-dunn-
collins/
P2: Carry out / P4: Produce
10. Project Hypothesis
1. Dancers are likely to be more flexible than non-dancers
2. Dancers are also likely to have more power in their legs as
they are always jumping and leaping.
3. Dancers that participate in other sports are likely to have
more power and stronger muscles than a dancer who only
takes part in dance.
P2: Carry out / P4: Produce
11. Method
My research is quantitative as I chose it to show differences between dancers and non-dancers
my aim is To investigate if power and flexibility differences exist between 16-18 female
participation standard dancers and non-dancers.
This data is classifies as primary and is also nominal data this is because I'm grouping my
participants.
I started by collecting 10 dancers and 10 non-dancers I picked the non-dancers at random
from my college and used 10 dancers from AS. Before I started testing I gave them a parQ
questionnaire followed by a warm up for health and safety, each warm up relates to power
or flexibility.
I constructed a Jump test by using a wall and a metre ruler to measure how high they jump,
followed by a sit and reach test completed with a sit and reach box,These test took place in
the dance studio.
I chose to do these test to ensure the validity of the results to give me the results I plan to get, to
make sure that my results are reliable I have made sure each test was completed 3 times and
used the best number from each participant, conducting the test 3 times also helps achieve
precise and accurate results this is because if I only did the test once the result could be a fluke. I
will be collecting all the results on a table and then putting them onto a graph that shows the
differences in measures.
P3: Collect and record / M2: Correctly analyse & describe techniques / D1: Correctly analyse & explain techniques
12. Data Collection
All of my data was primary data as I was using questionnaires, PARQ test and graphs, my
questioners included open and closed questions. I'm broke my data up into nominal as I am
putting them into categories of dancers /non-dancers and flexibility/power.
my experimental research is laboratory based to find out the deference's in dancers and
non-dancer power and flexibility , the reason I chose to use primary data is because it
helped me study the subjects them self's which will helped me analyse my results and
explain any differences if there were any.
I used mean, medium and mode which helped me see who's more flexible and who has
more power. I choose to use a parQ because I needed to make sure all the subjects were
healthy enough to take part in the test.
my research is also qualitative as the aim is to find defences in two different variables and
two groups of different samples. The results were collected on a table so that I could take a
look at them and they could be placed on a graph in order to show the levels of power and
flexibility. The data collected is discrete this is because its giving me a specific answer so
dancers have more flexibility than non-dancers. I have found using comparative research
has been interesting as you get to see how different two people can be.
P3: Collect and record / M2: Correctly analyse & describe techniques / D1: Correctly analyse & explain techniques
13. Data Analysis
To organise my data I took the best result from each participant and but it on a table on an excel page, I used
mean, medium and mode and rage to tell me which of the dancers were more powerful and flexible followed
by splitting them u into dancers who specialized in Dance and dancers who did other sport I now had 4
categories to analise.the reason I choose to split them up on excel is because I was looking at 2 variables and
two samples so this was a key feature I needed to conduct for my research to be specific.
I found that the dancers had more flexibility in a natural way but I also found that a few of the non-dancers had
natural flexibility even though they do not do dance so I took a look at their questionnaires to see if there were
any explanations to why they were more flexible than the other non-dancers and I found that one of the plays
netball and the other doesn’t do any other type of sport this is interesting because the hypothesis was that the
dancers would be more flexible but there can be naturally flexible people even without training.
I am coding my data so that I can reduce it, this is because when I first collect my results I have 3 results for
each person and I will be coding it down to one results from each person (best) this will leave me with one
results for each variable for 20 subjects in total this will help me put it on a graph smallest/highest
dancers/non-dancers. which will show the differences between them both leading to my results. Open coding
has helped me break down the results in order to get my one answer to my aim.
P3: Collect and record / M2: Correctly analyse & describe techniques / D1: Correctly analyse & explain techniques
14. Results
• Once I analysed my research I started taking a look at my results to find any correlations
or any differences I saw that Dancers have higher levels of power than they did
flexibility, I found this interesting as flexibility is a key thing in a dancers performance
the more flexible you are the better the dance looks and the more fluid it is.
• I was surprised by the graphs for both dancers and dancers who do sports because
they didn’t show many differences which contradicted a part of my hypothesis as I
thought that the dancers who attended other sports would have more power and
flexibility, although results did show higher revels of the two variables in the females
who also took part in cheerleading and gymnastic, but also the dancers used are still in
their first year and their flexibility will increase as the year goes on. The dancers seem
to be in the category above in flexibility levels and power in the legs than the non-
dancer
• Looking at the normative data tables I saw that all of the dancers are above average or
excellent were as the non-dancers and average or good
• The non-dancers seem to have a positive correlation between power and flexibility
within their own category where as the dancers do not have such a big correlation.
15. Discussion
I believe that the results I will collect from the dancers will all be similar the
same as all the dancers results will all be similar and they will all seem to
have a similar degree of flexibility in the hips, I also think that all the results
collected for the dancers will be above average if not excellent when
compared to the normative table and the non-dancers will be average and
possibly below average. the people who take part in other sports dancers and
non-dancers will be more powerful and more flexible than the rest of the
subjects in their category .
P2: Carry out / P4: Produce
16. Conclusion
My aim was to find out To investigate if power and flexibility differences exist between 16-
18 female participation standard dancers and non-dancers. the key trends found in my
literacy review was that all dancers generally had a lot more power and flexibility than
people who didn’t d dance but an interesting thing I found was that one of my non-dancers
took part in gymnastics which took her power and flexibility levels close to the dancers level
in conclusion my research is newer than a lot of the research I found related to my aim
therefore making it more reliable except the fact that my population isn't very big my
results met my hypotheses as they show that generally speaking dancers are stronger and
have more flexibility I also found that the dancers that did other sports as well as dancing
had more mower accept their flexibility levels weren't that much of a difference from the
other dancers that only take part in dance. The results also support my discussion because I
predicted that the two group would have similar results within their category average. This
tell me that the non-dancers do not use flexibility often apart from two subjects who
showed higher results than the other this was interesting so I took a look at their question
air and parQ test to see if anything they do would have given me these results and I found
one of the non-dancers plays netball which makes her more flexible than the subjects who
do not do sports at all. The graph shows a positive correlation between the flexibility results
for the non-dancers.
P2: Carry out / P4: Produce
17. Review (1/3)
My conclusion met my aim well because my aim was to find out
the differences in dancers and non-dancers and their levels of
flexibility and power, in my conclusion it shows that dancers have
a lot more flexibility and power than non-dancers.
something I found was that the dancers and non-dancers that
did other sports were stronger and more flexible. This is good
because my aim has been answered by also finding differences in
the dancers themselves. My aim chosen was also a strength
because of my acknowledgement of dance it self.
P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify
18. Review (2/3)
A great interest in my project was the use of the two different variables
power/flexibility this is because it gave me more to look at and more to find
more information which made it a lot more interesting than if I was only
looking at flexibility.
It was also good having to look at the two different groups of people as there
is a lot of theories about flexibility and people being ‘born flexible‘ so having
to find out for myself was good.
Comparing the results to normative data was a strength as I was able to see
at where the subjects should be and weather they are as good as they should
be or not.
Doing my test three times was a positive thing because I was able to take the
best result out of 3 which made it more accurate and reliable.
P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify
19. Review (3/3)
The only struggle I found about this project was collecting the subjects in
order to conduct the test this is because there was too many cancellations
and I felt as if I couldn't really rely on them. Because of this I had to do all the
test at different times with different people which was stressful. Next time I
will have to have a back up plan and maybe do smaller groups at a time that
just means I would need a larger timescale.
P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify
20. Future Recommendations (1/5)
Next time I was thinking of researching power and flexibility
against different type of dancers for example; street dance,
ballet, tap dance ,Bollywood and many others, the reason I
would like to do this is because all types of dance are different
and a ballet dancer may be more likely to be more flexible than a
tap, Bollywood dancer.
P4: Produce / P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify
21. Future Recommendations (2/5)
10 subjects of each category wasn’t enough because I didn’t feel
that I had a wide range to compare in order to give me accurate
results that apply to many other dancers and dance teachers, a
wider range of students would have been more reliable there are
many dancer schools in the world and millions of dancers so 10
dancers being tested doesn’t give you much of conclusion.
P4: Produce / P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify
22. Future Recommendations (3/5)
For further research I could use different test that measure
flexibility and power which could give me different results to the
ones I have and maybe just look into power and strength and
conduct 3 /4 different ways of measuring power in deferent
parts of the body.
P4: Produce / P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify
23. Future Recommendations (4/5)
• In the future a good thing that would improve project aims is
using more experienced dancers as the dancers used for this
project were in their first year which means that their power
and flexibility still need to increase throughout the year.
25. Appendix 1Questionnaire
Name:
Contact details:
Emergency contact:
Are you currently taking part in any dance classes outside of college?
Yes no
1a) if so how many times per week?
2 3 4 5 or more
1b) if yes how long have you been doing it for?
2-4 4-6 6 or more years
Are you currently playing another sport on a regular basis?
Yes No
2a) if so how many times per week?
1 2 3 4 5 6 or more
2b) if yes how long for?
0-2 2-4 4-6 6+
Following question 5 in the parQ questionnaire if your answer was yes, are you being treated for the injury and does it affect your level of physical activity?
29. Figures and tables 1Non-dancers
P3: Collect and record / M2: Correctly analyse & describe techniques / D1: Correctly analyse & explain techniques
Category Sit and Reach (cms)
Vertical Jump
(cm) Other Sport
Non-Dancer
1 20 73nothing
Non-Dancer
2 18 52nothing
Non-Dancer
3 22 63netball
Non-Dancer
4 28 59nothing
Non-Dancer
5 19 65netball
Non-Dancer
6 18 50nothing
Non-Dancer
7 22 70gymnastics
Non-Dancer
8 20 71nothing
Non-Dancer
9 15 62nothing
Non-Dancer
10 11 57nothing
Mean 19.3 62.2
Minimum 0 11
Max 28 73
Range 28 62
Median 19.5 62.5
Mode 20 #N/A
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Sit and Reach (cms) 20
18 22 28 19 18 22 20 15
11
Vertical Jump (cm) 73 52
63 59 65 50 70 71 62 57
Other Sport nothing
nothing netball nothing
netball nothing
gymnastics nothing
nothing nothing
30. Figures and tables 2
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Sit and Reach (cms) 30
32 39 31 36 34 40 29
24 33
Vertical Jump (cm) 82
76 69 73 68 75 84 81
78 66
Other Sport netball
dance dance dance
cheerleader marshal
arts gymnastics dance
dance dance
Category Sit and Reach (cms) Vertical Jump (cm) Other Sport
Dancer 1 30 82netball
Dancer 2 32 76dance
Dancer 3 39 69dance
Dancer 4 31 73dance
Dancer 5 36 68cheerleader
Dancer 6 34 75marshal arts
Dancer 7 40 84gymnastics
Dancer 8 29 81dance
Dancer 9 24 78dance
Dancer 33 66dance
Mean 32.8 75.2
Minimum 0 24
Max 40 84
Range 40 60
Median 32.5 75.5
Mode #N/A #N/A
31. Figures and tables 3
Category Sit and Reach (cms) Vertical Jump (cm) Other Sport
Dancer Specialist 32 76dance
Dancer Specialist 39 69dance
Dancer Specialist 31 73dance
Dancer Specialist 29 81dance
Dancer Specialist 24 78dance
Dancer Specialist 33 66dance
Dancer Specialist
Dancer Specialist
Dancer Specialist
Dancer Specialist
Mean 31.33333333 73.83333333
Minimum 0 24
Max 39 81
Range 39 57
Median 31.5 74.5
Mode #N/A #N/A
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Sit and Reach (cms) 32
39 31 29 24 33
Vertical Jump (cm) 76
69 73 81 78 66
Other Sport dance
dance dance dance
dance dance
32. Figures and tables 4
Category
Sit and Reach
(cms) Vertical Jump (cm) Other Sport
Dancer and Sports
person 40 84gymnastics
Dancer and Sports
person 30 82netball
Dancer and Sports
person 36 68cheerleader
Dancer and Sports
person 34 75marshal arts
Dancer and Sports
person
Dancer and Sports
person
Dancer and Sports
person
Dancer and Sports
person
Dancer and Sports
person
Dancer and Sports
person
Mean 35 77.25
Minimum 0 30
Max 40 84
Range 40 54
Median 35 78.5
Mode #N/A #N/A
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
DancerandSportsperson
DancerandSportsperson
DancerandSportsperson
DancerandSportsperson
DancerandSportsperson
DancerandSportsperson
Mean
Minimum
Max
Range
Median
Mode
Sit and Reach (cms) 40
30 36 34
Vertical Jump (cm) 84
82 68 75
Other Sport
gymnastics netball
cheerleader marshal
arts
33. Normative data for the sit and reach test and vertical jump test
Sit and reach test norms
Vertical jump test