THE INFLUENCE OF STRETCHING ON GENERAL PHYSICAL PREPAREDNESS

Abstract

Improving physical activity, physical preparedness and health of student youth is an urgent issue for both physicians and teachers in Ukraine. The reduced interest of school children in traditional physical education encourages to search for new forms and methods of increasing physical activity.In addition, there is a tendency of health and physical preparedness decrease among adolescents, the disappointing prevalence of hypodynamics of the younger generation.One of the ways to involve the younger generation in specially organized physical activity is extracurricular stretching classes. Such classes, in addition to a specific focus on the development of flexibility, make their adjustments to the indicators of general physical preparedness.The study involved 35 high-school-age girls who regularly attended extracurricular stretching classes during the school year. In order to analyze the impact of the annual cycle of classes on endurance, speed and coordination, we conducted appropriate motor tests (the Cooper 12-minute run test; 100-metre dash; shuttle running 4x9 m).As a result of the study we obtained the following totals among students before attendance of stretching classes: endurance X=2388 m, δ=138.2, m=23.35; speed – X=17.71 s, δ=0.4, m=0.068; coordination – X=12.33 s, δ=2.5, m=0.42. The obtained data correspond to the average level of physical preparedness.After the annual cycle of classes, there was an improvement in individual indicators of endurance, speed and coordination in all tests, but the average group statistically significant changes (p<0.01) were observed in terms of speed (X=17.34 s., δ=0.3, m=0.052) and coordination (X=11.24 s., δ=2.05, m=0.34). At the same time, endurance indicators (2434 m, δ=130.1, m=22.0) did not change statistically significantly (p≥0.1). The data obtained are evidence that the annual cycle of stretching has a positive effect on the general physical preparedness of girls aged 15-16.