Development of a sense of rhythm in children 8-9 years old with the help of exercise ‘Classic’s’

Introduction: Lack of physical activity of children is a problem in modern society. The solution to the problem is the addition of programmes on physical education in school using new tools.

Objective: To study the effect of exercise ‘Classic’s’ on indicators of general coordination abilities and sense of rhythm in primary school children.

Method: The study was conducted in a secondary school in Russia for 9 months. Fifty schoolchildren from the second grade took part in the pedagogical experiment. Physical education classes were held twice a week, each lesson lasting 40 minutes. The level of development of general coordination abilities was assessed with ‘Shuttle run 3x10 metres’. The level of development of the ability to have a sense of rhythm was assessed with ‘Sprint in a given rhythm’. Mathematical processing of the results was carried out using Microsoft Excel, Bio-stat and Student-t. 

Results: After the end of the study, in the control group, indicators of general coordination abilities and ability to have sense of rhythm improved but not significantly. In the experimental group, in which children additionally performed the exercise ‘Classic’s’, indicators improved significantly. In the test ‘Sprint in a given rhythm’ indicators improved from 7.3±0.6 seconds to 5.5±0.5 seconds (p<0.05). In the ‘Shuttle run’ test, performance improved by 19.1% (p<0.05).

Conclusions: The results of the study proved the effectiveness of the use of exercise ‘Classic’s’ in physical education lessons with children of primary school age, as an addition to the standard programme in school.

Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2020; 49(2): 140-144