Teaching the front crawl stroke by kickboard or by various aids : a study in young children

INTRODUCTION There are contrasting opinions about the suitability of aids in teaching swimming. Authors state that there is no evidence of their effectiveness (1) instead of their importance when new stroke elements are taught (2). But whether aids are used, what sort of them has to be preferred? The purpose of this study was to compare the results of teaching the front crawl stroke by a number of aids or by the only kickboard. MATERIAL AND METHODS Two groups of seven 10 years old children, whom equal swimming abilities were previously verified, were taught during nine swim classes program to learn the front crawl swimming. One group (=VAG, Mean±SD, weight 33.1±10.7 kg, high 121.2±6.8 cm) practiced with various aids, such as pull-buoy, kickboard, tubes, gloves. The other group (=KBG, Mean±SD, weight 32.7±8.7 kg, high 127.8±5.9 cm) practiced only with the aid of the kickboard. In order to verify the improvements of the subjects, a complete free front crawl stroke in the final part of each class was video recorded and scored through a MERS-F scale, judging a number of key elements for the stroke. Following analysis were carried out: i) intra-group comparison between each class and the next; ii) intra-group comparison between the first and the last class; iii) comparison between VAG and KBG in each class. RESULTS In i) significant improvements were found between classes: VAG, 2nd and 3rd (3.14±0.69 vs. 3.71±0.49 pts, p=.05), 5th and 6th (4.43±1.27 vs. 7.03±0.85 pts, p=0.02); KBG, 1st an 2nd (2.57±0.53 vs. 3.43±0.53 pts, p=0.01), 2nd and 3rd (3.43±0.53 vs. 4.29±0.76 pts, p=0.03), 3rd an 4th (4.29±0.76 vs. 5.14±0.69 pts, p=0.03), 5th and 6th (5.57±0.79 vs. 6.83±1.44 pts, p=0.04). In each group significant improvements were found between the first and the last class (ii): VAG, 2.71±0.49 vs. 7.63±0.44 pts (p<0.05); KBG 2.57±0.53 vs. 8.20±0.91 pts (p<0.05). No differences were found in the VAG - KBG comparison (iii) except after the 4th class (4.00±0.82 vs. 5.14±0.69 pts, p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS From the results (ii), both approaches (various aids, only kickboard aid) seems to be successful supports in teaching the front crawl stroke. As no differences were found between them (iii), their choice should depend on the preferred teaching methodology or on further reasons like widening water experiences or keeping the interest of the children. Concerning the comparisons between two consecutive classes (i), it seems that in the first six classes the use of the only kickboard would contribute to a more constant development of the stroke, probably as a consequence of a practice in a better trim and balance that classes’ video recordings showed to be worse by other aids.