Class program with buoyancy aid: Effects to the swimming performance of beginners

Abstract

The present study was conducted to determine the effects of a six-week class program with buoyancy vest to the performance of swimming beginners. There were 30 female college students (i.e., NExperimental group =15 and NControl group =15), who are swimming beginners (with International Swimming Federation Stage 1 competencies) participated a quasi-experimental study that includes between groups and within each group time series data analyses. The intervention had a duration of six weeks with weekly assessment conducted. Participants underwent the intervention (2 days a week for six weeks, 1 hour per session) and were assessed weekly through a crawl stroke swim-off performance test without buoyancy aid on the second day session of each class week. The Friedman Test was utilized in finding the significant differences in the swimming performance within groups and Mann Whitney U Test was used between groups. Both the control and experimental group showed significant improvement in their swimming distance performance. The beginner-students trained with buoyancy vest performed better than the students trained in traditional program. There was strong evidence that the class program with buoyancy vest is highly effective in improving the performance of swimming beginners. The class program with the buoyancy vest may be adopted by physical education instructors in their swimming classes to maximize time and effort in accomplishing the desired course goals. Similar studies may be conducted with a different set of participants or other swimming strokes.