The effect of using goggles and snorkels for water adaptation of non-swimmers with fear of water : Doctoral dissertation

Misimi, Fatmir (author), Kapus, Jernej (mentor)

Objectives. The use of masks, goggles and snorkels has become popular in some swimming schools. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the effect of the usage of goggles and snorkels during learn-to-swim program on aquatic skills of young non-swimmers with or without fear of water. The research objectives fall into a number of broad groupings: •To discern differences in learning water adaptations skills (such as water entry skill, skill of open eyes underwater, breath-holding skill, blowing bubbles skill, prone gliding skill, back gliding skill) in young non-swimmers with and without fear of water between two learn-to-swim programs, i.e., using goggles and snorkels or without these swim aids. •To look into the differences in learning swimming skills (such as prone swimming skill, breathing during prone swimming skill, back swimming skill, skills of changing position) in young non-swimmers with and without fear of water between two learn-to-swim programs, i.e., using goggles and snorkels or without these swim aids. Methods. Eighty children (forty female and forty male) aged between 10 and 11 years voluntarily participated in the study. They were non-swimmers and had no previous experience of formal swimming lessons. According to the results of the Fear of Water Assessment Questionnaire, the participants were assigned to either the group with fear of water or the group without it. Moreover, each group was further randomly divided into a group that used goggles and snorkels and a group that did not use these aids during the learn-to-swim program. Thus, each participant was assigned to the one of four groups: •F-GS (participants with fear of water who used goggles and snorkels during a learn-to-swim program), •F-NGS (participants with fear of water who did not use goggles or snorkels during a learn-to-swim program), •NF-GS (participants without fear of water who used goggles and snorkels during a learn-to-swim program, •NF-NGS (participants without fear of water who did not use goggles or snorkels during a learn-to-swim program). All four groups undertook five learning sessions per week for four weeks. Each session lasted 45 minutes. The learn-to-swim intervention was similar for all four groups. It follows an ordered pattern with beginners progressing from water entry, opening their eyes underwater, exhaling into the water, developing buoyancy, gliding, kicking, and finally arm stroke exercises. For F-NGS and NF-NGS, all of these take place without the use of a goggles or snorkel. This order was reversed for F-GS and NF-GS so that the goggles and snorkels were integrated and introduced after water entry exercises. Familiarization with wearing the goggles and breathing through the snorkel continued during exercises for improving buoyancy, gliding, kicking, and arm strokes. With this revised program, coordinating breathing with the natural stroke cycle and opening the eyes underwater followed only once participants mastered swimming with the face submerged while breathing ad libitum through a snorkel. The final goal was the same for all four groups: to swim the desired stroke without the goggles and snorkel, with breathing integrated into the natural stroke cycle. Before and after the learn-to-swim intervention, we evaluated participants’ water skills by using scores on a 5-point scale. Results. All four groups improved water competence skills with learn-to-swim interventions. The comparisons of the intervention effects between the groups with fear of water showed that the learning improvement in water entry (4 ± 0.68 at F-GS vs. 3 ± 1.38 at F-NGS; p = 0,02), back gliding (3 ± 0.96 at F-GS vs. 2 ± 1.09 at F-NGS; p = 0,02; p = 0,03), and prone swimming (3 ± 0.71 at F-GS vs. 3 ± 1.32 at F-NGS; p = 0,05) scores were bigger in F-GS than in F-NGS. At the contrary, the intervention effect was lower in the blowing bubbles scores in F-GS than in F-NGS (3 ± 0.83 at F-GS vs. 4 ± 0.56 at F-NGS; p = 0,04). The comparisons of the intervention effects between the groups without fear of water showed that the learning improvement in prone swimming (2 ± 1.86 at NF-GS vs. 1 ± 1.15 at NF-NGS; p = 0,01) scores was bigger in NF-GS than in NF-NGS. At the contrary, the intervention effect was lower in the blowing bubbles scores in NF-GS than in NF-NGS (2 ± 1.66 at NF-GS vs. 3 ± 0.70 at NF-NGS; p = 0,02). Conclusion. The results of present study indicated that the usage of goggles and snorkels during learn-to-swim programs exerted positive and negative effects on participants' during aquatic skills improvement. The positive effects were shown for the participants with fear of water particularly. Goggles and snorkels helped them to decrease their hesitation upon water entry, back gliding and at the acquisition of prone swimming skills. Thus, using googles and snorkels during learn-to-swim programs induced greater learning improvement in these skills compared to non-usage. On the contrary, there were no significant different effect on aquatic skills of young non-swimmers without fear of water. Moreover, participants' improvement in blowing bubbles was significantly smaller in the learn-to-swim program with the goggles and snorkels than program without them. These effects were confirmed for all participants, regardless of their fear of water. A similar but not significant influence was shown on acquisition of breathing during prone swim as well. These results illustrate the negative effects of the usage of goggles and snorkels during learn-to-swim programs.

• Language: English
• Keywords: swimming / fear of water / goggles / snorkel / non-swimmer
• Work type: Doctoral dissertation
• Typology: 2.08 - Doctoral Dissertation
• Organization: FŠ - Faculty of Sport
• Year: 2021
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-126290
• COBISS.SI-ID: 61409795
• Publication date in RUL: 15.04.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Učinki uporabe plavalnih očal in dihalke pri začetnem učenju plavanja na napredek neplavalcev strahom pred vodo

Abstract

Cilji. Cilj raziskave je bil ugotoviti učinke uporabe plavalnih očal in dihalke med začetnim učenjem plavanja na prilagojenost na vodo in na znanje ter sposobnosti plavanja neplavalcev z izraženim strahom pred vodo ali brez njega. Učinke poskusnega učenja smo primerjali z učinki učenja plavanja, pri katerem plavalnih očal in dihalke nismo uporabljali. Metode dela. V raziskavi je sodelovalo 80 otrok (40 deklic in 40 dečkov), starih od 10 do 11 let. Bili so neplavalci, ki se pred raziskavo še nikoli niso udeležili plavalnega tečaja. S pomočjo vprašalnika smo preiskovance razdelili v dve glavni skupini: na tiste z izraženim strahom pred vodo in na tiste brez njega. Vsako od teh dveh skupini smo razdelili še na dve podskupini: na tiste, ki so se učili plavati s plavalni očali in dihalko ter na tiste, ki pri učenju teh dveh pripomočkov niso uporabljali. Raziskovalni program je torej potekal v štirih skupinah preiskovancev: •skupina F-GS (preiskovanci z izraženim strahom pred vodo, ki so se učili plavati s plavalni očali in dihalko), •skupina F-NGS (preiskovanci z izraženim strahom pred vodo, ki pri učenju plavanja niso uporabljali plavalnih očal in dihalke), •skupina NF-GS (preiskovanci brez izraženega strahu pred vodo, ki so se učili plavati s plavalni očali in dihalko) in •skupina NF-NGS (preiskovanci brez izraženega strahu pred vodo, ki pri učenju plavanja niso uporabljali plavalnih očal in dihalke). Vse štiri skupine so se učile in vadile pet-krat na teden, štiri tedne. Ena vadbena enota je trajala 45 minut. Program učenja plavanja je bil za vse preizkušance podoben. Pri skupinah F-NGS in NF-NGS je program sledil običajnemu začetnemu programu učenja plavanja, torej: prilagajanje na upor vode (vstop v vodo), prilagajanje na potapljanje glave, prilagajanje na gledanje pod gladino, prilagajanje na izdihovanje v vodo, prilagajanje na plovnost, prilagajanje na drsenje, učenje udarcev, učenje zaveslajev, učenje gibanja glave in dihanja v koordinaciji z zaveslaji in učenje koordinacije celotne plavalne tehnike. Z uporabo plavalnih očal in dihalke smo pri skupinah F-GS in NF-GS ta vrstni red nekoliko spremenili. Po prvih dveh stopnjah (prilagajanje na upor vode (vstop v vodo) in na potapljanje glave), smo izpustili prilagajanje na gledanje pod gladino in na izdihovanje v vodo ter nadaljevali s prilagajanjem na plovnost in na drsenje ter učenjem plavalnih tehnik. Nato smo pripomočka postopoma odstranili, tako da smo preiskovance prilagodili še na gledanje pod gladino in na izdihovanje v vodo. Končni cilj programov je bil pri vseh štirih skupinah enak in sicer samostojno plavanje brez uporabe plavalnih očal in dihalke. Pred poukom plavanja in po njem, smo s pomočjo 11 testov ocenili prilagojenost preiskovancev na vodo in njihovo znanje ter sposobnosti plavanja. Rezultati. Velika večina preiskovancev (izjema je le skupina NF-NGS pri testih vstopa v vodo, gledanja pod gladino in plavanja v prsnem položaju) je z učenjem plavanja napredovala v prilagojenosti na vodo ter v znanju in sposobnostih plavanja (p < 0.05 in p < 0.01). Primerjava učinkov pouka med skupinama z izraženim strahom pred vodo je pokazala, da je bil učni napredek pri testih vstopa v vodo, drsenja v hrbtnem in plavanja v prsnem položaju večji, pri testu pihanja mehurčkov pa manjši pri skupini F-GS, kakor pri skupini F-NGS (p < 0.05). Podobno je pokazala tudi primerjava učinkov pouka med skupinama brez izraženega strahu pred vodo. Skupina NF-GS je v testu plavanja v prsnem položaju napredovala bolj, v testu pihanja mehurčkov pa manj v primerjavi s skupino NF-NGS (p < 0.05). Zaključki. Rezultati raziskave so razgrnili pozitivne in negativne učinke uporabe plavalnih očal in dihalke pri začetnem učenju plavanja. Pozitivni učinki so se pokazali predvsem pri neplavalcih z izraženim strahom pred vodo. Pri tej skupini je uporaba plavalnih očal in dihalke pomembno pripomogla k večjemu učnemu napredku v zmožnostih vstopa v vodo, drsenja v hrbtnem položaju in plavanja v prsnem položaju. Pri neplavalcih brez izraženega strahu pred vodo, uporaba teh dveh pripomočkov ni imela pomembnih učnih učinkov. Negativni učinki uporabe plavalnih očal in dihalke pri začetnem učenju plavanja, so se pokazali pri osvajanju zmožnosti izdihavanja v vodo. Učni napredek je bil namreč pri testu pihanja mehurčkov, ob uporabi teh dveh pripomočkov, statistično pomembno manjši.

• Keywords: plavanje / strah pred vodo / plavalna očala / dihalka / neplavalec