MÉTODO CINEMÁTICO PARA AVALIAÇÃO DA FLEXIBILIDADE: ESTUDO COMPARATIVO COM O BANCO DE WELLS ENTRE CRIANÇAS ESCOLARES E PARTICIPANTES DE INICIAÇÃO ESPORTIVA Kinematics method for flexibility evaluation: comparative study with Wells test between school children and sport initiation participants

Objectives: To evaluate the flexibility of two groups of children through two protocols: 1) kinematic analysis to determine the angles of the hip and shoulder girdle, in children who participate in a sport initiation program (experimental group) and children attending only physical education classes (control group). 2) The Wells test also for both groups. Methods: bidimensional kinematic analysis; through the filming of the realization of task (Wells test) and subsequent digitalization of the joint points to determine the angles. The sample consisted of 46 children 9-12 years old, male, with a mean age of 10.41 (± 1.08) years, 25 volunteers from the State Schools that participated in physical education classes and 21 students from Basketball School. Results: in Wells test were 0.23 M (± 0.06) for participants in the sport initiation program and 0,26m (± 0.06) for school students. This evaluation protocol can bring erroneous data because the rigidity of the column may be being compensated by the high mobility of the shoulder girdle, making clear that the most modern methods of analysis, such as kinematics, can provide more reliable results. The correlations between the angle of the shoulder girdle and the Wells test showed significant correlations (0.84 to the school group and 0.70 for the sport initiation group). The correlations between the hip angle and Wells test also were significant at P <0.01 in both groups, (-0.86 for the school group; -0.76 for the sport initiation group). These results confirm the complexity of flexibility measures since several aspects and parameters may affect it .