The impact of the comprehensive use of sports games on the physical fitness of high school students

Abstract

The results of experimental research on the effectiveness of the comprehensive use of sports games (volleyball, football, basketball, and handball) during extracurricular activities for high school students in physical education have been presented. The aim of the research was to determine the effectiveness of the extracurricular program based on the comprehensive use of sports games to improve the physical fitness of high school students. Research methods included analysis and generalization of data from scientific and methodological literature, pedagogical observations, pedagogical experiment, testing of general and special physical fitness, anthropometric methods of research, physiological methods of research, express assessment of physical health, and methods of mathematical statistics.
 The implementation of the experimental extracurricular program with volleyball games in general contributed to the improvement of overall physical fitness, including an increase in physical performance, development of physical qualities, a decrease in blood pressure, improvement of the general peripheral vascular resistance index, Robinson index, hypoxia index, Skibinski index, improvement of the functional state of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, improvement of physical health indicators, and improvement of special physical fitness indicators. In high school boys in the experimental group, significant improvement in their physical fitness was recorded compared to boys in the control group. Statistically significant improvements were observed in the level of physical performance, general level of physical fitness (speed-strength, strength abilities, level of agility, endurance, and flexibility), special physical fitness indicators, functional state, functional fitness, and physical health indicators. The analysis of the results of the pedagogical experiment suggests a high potential for the proposed approach to improve the system of extracurricular activities in physical education in secondary education institutions.