Abstract
The aim of the study was to determine whether a ten week football and swimming university course affected the health-related fitness of university students. University students from two universities took part in the study, with one group serving as the control group. The group that took the course did three weeks of football and seven weeks of swimming. Each class occurred twice a week, with each class lasting 45 minutes. The following health-related fitness parameters were evaluated at the beginning and end of the course: Trunk flexibility using the sit-and-reach test, muscular endurance using 60 seconds sit-up test, explosive leg strength using the standing long jump test, and cardiovascular fitness using the Cooper Test. Parametric tests were applied to detect any effect of the courses on the students. Differences with p ≤ 0.05 and Vargha-Delaney Common language effect size (VD) ≤ 42% or ≥ 58% between both groups were taken as evidence for any improvements obtained from the course. The number analyzed data from the exercise and control groups were 438 and 49, respectively. Only the muscular endurance (Mean difference post-pre =3.19 repetitions, p≤0.01, VD=0.62) and cardiovascular fitness (Mean difference post-pre=0.26 mins, p≤0.01, VD=0.68) showed signs of improvements in the exercise group after the course. However, the improvements from the control group were higher than that of the exercise group. The study shows that the fitness parameters cannot be significantly improved unless the course design was improved.
Presenters
Mohammad HamdanChairman of Physical Education, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Ash Sharqiyah, Saudi Arabia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Health Related Fitness, Football, Swimming
