Methodological aspects of using active games in an aquatic environment in the training process for swimmers in beginner groups in their first year of training

Abstract

The aim of our study was: To establish the effectiveness of an experimental method of teaching swimming to children aged 7-9 in beginner groups in their first year of training, based on the use of active games. Material and methods: The study was conducted among children attending swimming lessons at the Yana Klochkova Municipal Children's and Youth Sports School of Water Sports in Kharkiv. 28 girls and 30 boys participated in the study. The subjects were divided into experimental (EG) and control groups (CG). The groups were identical in terms of gender and age (EG of girls - 15 people, CG of girls - 13 people; EG of boys - 15 people, CG of boys - 15 people). The experiment was conducted during the school year. Its purpose was to verify the developed methodology for teaching swimming to swimmers aged 7-9 years based on the use of outdoor games. The content and methods of the pedagogical experiment corresponded to the general principles of teaching and upbringing in the educational and training process. The author's methodology for teaching swimming to children aged 7-9 years in the initial training groups of the first year of training consisted in increasing the amount of time allocated to the use of outdoor games in the water. When selecting games and recruiting teams, the occupancy of the groups, the swimming training of those involved, their age and gender, the conditions and place of conduct, the available equipment, as well as the tasks were taken into account. The games had rules or conditions, were feasible, corresponded to the preparedness of the subjects, and ended with summing up and identifying the winners. During data collection, the following research methods were used: theoretical analysis and generalisation of data from literary sources; pedagogical experiment; pedagogical testing; methods of mathematical statistics. Results: The study revealed that both the control and experimental groups showed positive dynamics in test results, but the experimental groups showed a significant improvement in all indicators of physical and technical fitness of young athletes (p<0.05). Conclusions: the indicators obtained during the experiment showed a significant improvement in the EG in most indicators of the physical and technical fitness of athletes (p<0.05), in contrast to the control group. This allows us to conclude that the proposed method of using mobile games contributes to improving the physical fitness of children and mastering swimming skills.