· pdf file– 5 – nr 49 an tro po mo to ry ka 2010 contents from editors: in the...

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATIONCRACOW, POLAND

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATIONIN WROCLAW, POLAND

CRACOW – WROCLAW 2010

ISSN 1731-0652

COMMITTEE FOR REHABILITATION, PHYSICAL EDUCATIONAND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIEN CES

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SPORT KINETICS – IASK

AN TRO PO MO TO RY KAVol. 20, nr 49INDEX COPERNICUS

AKADEMIA WYCHOWANIA FI ZYCZ NE GOIM. BRO NI SŁA WA CZECHA W KRA KO WIEAKADEMIA WYCHOWANIA FI ZYCZ NE GO

WE WROCŁAWIU

KRAKÓW – WROCŁAW 2010

ISSN 1731-0652

KOMITET REHABILITACJI, KULTURY FIZYCZNEJI INTEGRACJI SPOŁECZNEJ PAN

MIĘDZYNARODOWE STOWARZYSZENIE MOTORYKI SPOR TO WEJ – IASK

AN TRO PO MO TO RY KAVol. 20, nr 49INDEX COPERNICUS

COMMITTEE FOR REHABILITATION, PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION OF POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SPORT KINETICS – IASKUNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION, CRACOW, POLAND

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN WROCLAW, POLANDVOL. 20, NR 49 CRACOW – WROCLAW 2010

Design and DTP: University School of Physical Education, Cracow, PolandPrint: Drukarnia Cyfrowa KSERKOP, 30-019 Kraków, ul. Mazowiecka 60

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

CHAIRMANEdward Mleczko

V-CHAIRMANZofia Ignasiak

MEMBERSJan Chmura, Jerzy Januszewski, Andrzej Klimek, Tadeusz Koszczyc, Lesław Kulmatycki,

Wiesław Osiński, Joachim Raczek, Teresa Sławińska-Ochla, Włodzimierz Starosta

EDITORIAL BOARD

Michal Belej (Slovakia), Peter Blaser (Germany), Tadeusz Bober, Janusz Czerwiński, Sławomir Drozdowski, Józef Drabik, Joanna Gradek, Peter Hirtz (Germany), Josif Moisiejewicz Fejgenberg (Israel), Adam Haleczko,

Andrzej Jopkiewicz, Han C.G. Kemper (Holland), Krzysztof Klukowski, Vladimir Lyakh (Russia),Robert M. Malina (USA), Wacław Petryński, Ryszard Przewęda,

Igor Ryguła, Stanisław Sterkowicz, Stanisław Żak

EDITOR’S OFFICE

al. Jana Pawła II 7831-571 Kraków

Poland

Indexed in INDEX COPERNICUS

Linguistic proofreading: Wacław Petryński

Copy-editing and proofreading: Barbara Przybyło

© Copyright by University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland

ANTROPOMOTORYKAISSN 1731-0652

ANTROPOMOTORYKAKOMITET REHABILITACJI, KULTURY FI ZYCZ NEJ I INTEGRACJI SPOŁECZNEJ PAN

MIĘ DZY NA RO DO WE STO WA RZY SZE NIE MOTORYKI SPORTOWEJ – IASKAKADEMIA WY CHO WA NIA FI ZYCZ NE GO IM. BRONISŁAWA CZE CHA W KRA KO WIE

AKADEMIA WYCHOWANIA FIZYCZNEGO WE WROCŁAWIU

ISSN 1731-0652

VOL. 20, NR 49 KRAKÓW – WROCŁAW 2010

Opracowanie gra ficz ne i łamanie: Sekcja Koordynacji Projektów Wydawniczych AWF KrakówDruk: Drukarnia Cyfrowa KSERKOP, 30-019 Kraków, ul. Mazowiecka 60

REDAKCJA

Redaktor NaczelnyEdward Mleczko

Z-ca Redaktora Na czel ne goZofia Ignasiak

Komitet RedakcyjnyJan Chmura, Jerzy Januszewski, Andrzej Klimek, Tadeusz Koszczyc, Lesław Kulmatycki,

Wiesław Osiński, Joachim Raczek, Teresa Sławińska-Ochla, Włodzimierz Starosta

RADA REDAKCYJNA

Michal Belej (Słowacja), Peter Blaser (Niemcy), Tadeusz Bober, Janusz Czerwiński, Sławomir Drozdowski, Józef Drabik, Joanna Gradek, Peter Hirtz (Niemcy), Josif Moisiejewicz Fejgenberg (Izrael), Adam Haleczko,

Andrzej Jopkiewicz, Han C.G. Kemper (Holandia), Krzysztof Klukowski, Vladimir Lyakh (Rosja), Robert M. Malina (USA), Wacław Petryński, Ryszard Przewęda,

Igor Ryguła, Stanisław Sterkowicz, Stanisław Żak

ADRES REDAKCJI

al. Jana Pawła II 7831-571 Kraków

Poland

Czasopismo ANTROPOMOTORYKA jest umieszczone na liście rankingowej INDEX COPERNICUS

Korekta językowa: Wacław Petryński

Korekta wydawnicza: Barbara Przybyło

© Copyright by University School of Physical Education in Cracow

– 5 –

NR 49 2010AN TRO PO MO TO RY KA

CONTENTS

From Editors: In the year 2010 subsequent issue of “Antropomotoryka – Kinesiology” in English 7Information for the Authors 9

DISSERTATIONS AND ARTICLESMohsen Ghanbarzadeh, Abdul Hamid Habibi, Mohammad Reza Zadkarami, Mehdi Bustani, Maryam Mohammadi

The effect of an anaerobic test on lung indices in some elite basketball players 15

Bojan Jošt, Janez Pustovrh, Janez VodičarPhilosophy of expert modeling of sport performance of high level athletes 23

Ryszard Litkowycz, Kajetan Słomka, Monika Grygorowicz, Henryk Król The influence of plyometrics training on the maximal power of the lower limbs in basketball players aged 16–18 33

Ireneusz Cichy, Andrzej Rokita, Marek Popowczak, Karolina NaglakPsychomotor development of grade I primary school children who are educated by means of traditional and non-traditional program 45

Łukasz Jadczak, Andrzej Kosmol, Andrzej Wieczorek, Robert ŚliwowskiMotor fitness and coordination abilities vs. effectiveness of play in sitting volleyball 57

Bożena Królikowska, Michał Rozpara, Władysław Mynarski, Bogusława Graczykowska, Daniel Puciato The calorific cost of young women’s leisure activity 69

Bartłomiej Sokołowski, Maria ChrzanowskaChanges in somatic and motor development in children and adolescents in the years 1980–1988 and in 2000 81

Wanda Pilch, Łukasz Tota, Szczepan Wiecha, Dorota AmbrożyA simple method of assessment of energy expenditure of low-impact aerobic exercises 89

REVIEW PAPERSWłodzimierz Starosta

The muscle relaxation ability and results in sport of world elite competitors 99

DISCUSSIONSWacław Petryński, Mirosław Szyndera

Time perception and motor behaviour of living beings 119

ANNOUNCEMENTSThe International Forum “Health and Longevity” in Kielce, Poland 131Competition of research papers on physical education teaching for Prof. Czabański’s Award 132

– 6 –


SPIS TREŚCI

Od Redakcji: W roku 2010 kolejny numer czasopisma „Antropomotoryka – Kinesiology” po angielsku 7Informacje dla Autorów 11

ROZPRAWY I ARTYKUŁYMohsen Ghanbarzadeh, Abdul Hamid Habibi, Mohammad Reza Zadkarami, Mehdi Bustani, Maryam Mohammadi

Wpływ testu wydolności beztlenowej RAST na wskaźniki czynności płuc u koszykarzy wysokiego wyczynu 15

Bojan Jošt, Janez Pustovrh, Janez VodičarFilozofia eksperckiego modelowania występu sportowego wysokiego wyczynu 23

Ryszard Litkowycz, Kajetan Słomka, Monika Grygorowicz, Henryk Król Wpływ treningu plajometrycznego na poprawę poziomu siły eksplozywnej kończyn dolnych u koszykarzy w wieku 16–18 lat 33

Ireneusz Cichy, Andrzej Rokita, Marek Popowczak, Karolina NaglakRozwój psychomotoryczny uczniów pierwszej klasy szkoły podstawowej edukowanych programem tradycyjnym i nietradycyjnym 45

Łukasz Jadczak, Andrzej Kosmol, Andrzej Wieczorek, Robert ŚliwowskiSprawność motoryczna i zdolności koordynacyjne a skuteczność gry w siatkówce na siedząco 57

Bożena Królikowska, Michał Rozpara, Władysław Mynarski, Bogusława Graczykowska, Daniel Puciato Koszt kaloryczny aktywności wolnoczasowej młodych kobiet 69

Bartłomiej Sokołowski, Maria ChrzanowskaZmiany w rozwoju somatycznym i motorycznym u dzieci i młodzieży w latach 1980–1988 i w roku 2000 81

Wanda Pilch, Łukasz Tota, Szczepan Wiecha, Dorota AmbrożyProsta ocena wydatku energetycznego aerobiku typu low-impact 89

PRACE PRZEGLĄDOWEWłodzimierz Starosta

Zdolność rozluźniania mięśni a wyniki sportowe zawodników światowej elity 99

POLEMIKI I DYSKUSJEWacław Petryński, Mirosław Szyndera

Postrzeganie czasu a zachowanie ruchowe istot żywych 119

INFORMACJEMiędzynarodowe Forum „Zdrowie i długowieczność”, Kielce, 20–22 maja 2010 131

Konkurs publikacji naukowych z zakresu dydaktyki wychowania fizycznego o Nagrodę Profesora Bogdana Czabańskiego 132

– 7 –


FROM EDITORS OD REDAKCJI

IN THE YEAR 2010 SUBSEQUENT ISSUE OF ANTROPOMOTORYKA – KINESIOLOGY IN ENGLISH

W ROKU 2010 KOLEJNY NUMER CZASOPISMA ANTROPOMOTORYKA – KINESIOLOGY PO ANGIELSKU

In your hands, you have the forty-ninth issue of our journal, the second one made up of English-written texts. That is due to the terms of editorial contract, under which English and Polish issues of the quarterly should appear alternately. The fi ftieth, jubilee, issue of Antropomotoryka – Kinesiology is going to appear in Polish.

The problem that should be rethought currently by the Editorial Committee is the way of delivery our jour-nal to the readership. Until now, subsequent issues of Antropomotoryka – Kinesiology have been published in the traditional way as printed brochures. Nowadays, when academic audience raises more and more boldly the need for e-periodicals, electronic version of our Cracow-Wroclaw quarterly is taken into consideration. We believe that the readers’ need will be met soon.

With the opening of the editorial year 2010, we would like to encourage the readers to study every section of Antropomotoryka – Kinesiology paragraph after paragraph, page after page. Among the authors you can fi nd the representatives of academic institu-tions from home and abroad (e.g. from Slovenia and Iran). Current issue of our journal is devoted mainly to biological and environmental determinants of sport motoricity.

First of all we would like to focus the readers’ atten-tion on three papers: • The effect of an anaerobic test on lung indices in

some elite basketball players, a study written by a team of Iranian authors;

• The infl uence of plyometrics training on the maximal power of the lower limbs in basketball players aged

16–18 (by Ryszard Litkowycz, Kajetan Słomka, Monika Grygorowicz and Henryk Król);

• Motor fi tness and coordination abilities vs. effec-tiveness of play in sitting volleyball (by Łukasz Jadczak, Andrzej Kosmol, Andrzej Wieczorek, Robert Śliwowski).

Then we suggest concentrating on the fi ndings of Philosophy of expert modelling of sport performance of high level athletes. The authors, Slovenian reaserch-ers: Bojan Jošt, Janez Pustovrh and Janez Vodičar opt for putting into sport practice their own method for im-proving organizational culture and training procedures. Similar method, AHP, is still in its early stages of imple-mentation to the realities of Polish research work and sporting activities.

After that, the accent should be put on papers fa-miliarizing the audience with the results of pedagogical experiments. Ireneusz Cichy, Andrzej Rokita, Marek Popowczak and Karolina Naglak in the text Psychomotor development of grade in primary school children who are educated by means of traditional and non-traditional program present the results of researches confi rming the impact of innovative techniques of working on the psy-chomotor development of children at early school age.

Also in this issue, two teams of scientists from differ-ent university centers focus the reader’s attention on sim-ilar aspects of recreational training for young women… in both cases, the training proved to be ineffective.

In turn, we have the paper by Maria Chrzanowska and Bartłomiej Sokołowski, a team of Cracovian re-

From Editors

– 8 –

searchers, who have centered their interest upon the fi eld of intergenerational changes in motor and somatic development of Cracow children and adolescents. In the study entitled Changes in somatic and motor development in children and adolescents in the years 1980–1988 and in 2000 the authors hold the readers’ interest in a tendency to achieve higher indexes of mor-phological development accompanied by lower motor abilities.

This issue of Antropomotoryka – Kinesiology brings also a review paper by Włodzimierz Starosta: The mus-cle relaxation ability and results in sport of world elite competitors, outlining the problem on the background of literature survey. Wacław Petryński and Mirosław

Szyndera close the issue with the study Time percep-tion and motor behaviour of living beings in which they discuss infl uence of time perception development on behaviour control in living beings, including humans.

What else can I add as an editor-in-chief to this in-troductory note? Let me wish you satisfaction with read-ing current issue of Antropomotoryka – Kinesiology and express my gratitude to all those who contributed to publish it. All is well that begins well in the year 2010.

Edward MleczkoEditor-in-Chief

of Antropomotoryka – Kinesiology

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1. “Kinesiology” (“Antropomotoryka”) is an offi cial scientifi c quarterly of the International Association of Sport Kinetics – IASK, pub lished at the University School of Physical Edu-cation, Cracow, Poland under the auspices of the Committee Rehabilitation, Physical Education and Social Integration the Polish Acad emy of Sciences.

The magazine presents the results of original re search work and experiments in the fi eld of human mo to r icity and re lated sciences. It also publishes review ar ticles, opinion ar ticles and discussion of scientists evalu ating the current situation and perspectives of sci en tifi c de vel opment of human motoricity.

2. Materials for publication (two copies of computer print outs) should be sent together with the fl oppy disk at the following address: Redakcja “Antro po mo to ryki”, Aka demia Wychow-ania Fizycznego, al. Jana Pawła II 78, 31-571 Kraków, tel. 012 683 12 78, tel/fax 012 683 10 76, e-mail: [email protected].

3. General conditions:• Upon submitting a paper to be published the Author

(Authors) trans fers copyright to the Publishing House of the “Antro po mo to ryka”. The works qualifi ed for pub li cation become therefore the prop erty of the Publishing House of the “Antro po mo to ryka” and cannot be published in extenso or in fragments in other pe ri odi cals or other media without the written per mission of the Publisher. The work submitted for publication in the “Antro po mo to ryka” cannot be submitted for pub li cation ear lier on or simultaneously in any other pe ri odical. The Author is required to make a written statement to this effect. If the work in cludes any fi gures, tables, etc. which have al ready been published elsewhere, the Author is obliged to obtain a written per-mission for re printing.

• “Antropomotoryka” accepts demonstrative, origi nal, experimental, and historical papers, in for mation about conferences, reports from con gresses and con ferences on human motoricity, short summa ries of works pub-lished in foreign pe ri odi cals and book re views on human motoricity. Origi nal works are accepted in En glish.

• The works of particular sci en tifi c value sub mitted and accepted for pub li cation earlier on in a for eign sci en-

tifi c periodical can also be submitted for publication in the “Antro po mo to ryka”, however, on condition that the Author ob tains a permission from the publisher of the pe ri odical.

• All papers should be no longer than 22 pages with 1800 letters per page (i.e. 30 lines 60 points each). They should be in double-spaced or 1,5 spaced typewriting on one side of the paper only.

4. Rules of constructing the work:• The accompanying letter should contain both home and

offi ce addresses and the information at which address to send the correspondence.

• Empirical works should contain the following in for mation: title, name(s) of the author(s), key words in Polish and in English, brief summary in Polish, summary in English (as mentioned above), in tro duction, ma terial, methods, results and dis cussion, con clusions and bib li og ra phy.

• The number of key words should be from 3 to 15.• The summary has to contain: the purpose of the work,

material, methods, results and con clusions.• The fi rst page should contain the information in the

following order: title, name(s) of the author(s), scientifi c degree(s) of the author(s) and the pro fessional affi liation, including the address, key words, brief summary in Polish and in English. The summary should not contain less than 200 and to more than 250 words.

• The reference materials should be listed on a sepa rate sheet of paper. Only the aterials the Author refers to in the text may be included. They should be num bered using Arabic numerals and placed in the order they are quoted in the work (not in the alphabetic order). Each item of the reference materials should be written in a new verse. The surname(s) of the author(s) of the quoted work should be followed by the initials of their fi rst name(s), then the original title of the maga zine where the work was published should be given. The abbre viation of the title of a magazine should be taken from the Index Medicus (or In ter na tional Committee of Medical Journal Editors: Uni form Re quirements for manu scripts submit-ted in bio medical jour nals. N Engl J Med 1997; 336, 309–315).


INFORMATION FOR THE AUTHORS

Information for the Authors

– 10 –

Examples:a) works printed in magazines:

• Casella R, Bubendorf L, Sauter G, Moch H, Michatsch MJ, Gasser TC: Focal neu roen do crine differentiation lacks prognostics sig nifi cance in prostate core needle biopsies. J Urol, 1998; 160: 406–410.

b) monographs:• Matthews DE, Farewell VT: Using and Un der-

standing Medical Statistics, ed 3, re vised. Basel, Karger, 1966.

c) chapters in textbooks:• Parren PWHI, Burton DR: Antibodies against

HIV-1 from phage display libraries; Mapping of an immune response and progress towards antiviral immu no therapy; in Capra JD (ed): An ti body En-gineering, Chem. Immunol. Basel, Karger, 1997, 65: 18–56.

• Kokot F: Fizjologia nerek; (w:) Zieliński J, Leń ko J (eds): Urologia, War sza wa, PZWL, 1992, 1: 9–20.

All the illustrations have to be of high quality. Graphic material should be submitted on white sheets of pa per. Copies of photographs and pho to graphs should be sub-mitted on glossy paper. The con secutive num ber of the photograph should be written with a soft pencil on the back side of each photograph as well as an arrow marking its top edge. Only black and white pictures are printed. Scales and pictures should be placed on separate pages and numbered with Arabic numerals. The headings, descrip-tions and suscriptions under the pictures and above the scales should be written in Polish and English.

Example in Polish: Tabela 1., Ryc. 1., Objaśnienia, Chłopcy

Example in English: Table 1., Fig. 1., Commentary, Boys Please, use round pa ren the ses. Physical or chemical

for mu lae should be written clearly. This re fers par ticu larly to in di ces and ex po nents.

The article can be written using the editor of MS Word 6.0

to XP or Star Offi ce 5 PL, preferably DOC or RTF for mat. Illustrations and tables should be packed in sepa rate fi les and, on the printouts, the place where they are to be included should be marked in pencil. The graphs made in black. It is permissible to use gray tints with various shades of intensity and texture. While typing the descriptions uni-form char ac ter we kindly ask used due to esthetic reasons, e.g., arial. Bold print, italics, etc., should be limited to the nec essary mini mum. While scanning the illus trations, the dis tri bution should be at least 300 dpi. Black and white illustrations (line art) should be sent in TIFF for mat and pictures (gray) – in TIFF or JPEG format (at the low degree of com pression, up to 10%). All the fi les should be packed

using RAR or ZIP. After copying them on a fl oppy disk it is necessary to check if all the fi les are copied. It is best to copy the fi les on a freshly for matted disk.

The reference materials should be given in the order of quotation.[1] Żekoński Z, Wolański N: Warunki społeczno-by to we

jako czynniki rozwoju człowieka w Wo lań ski N (red.): Czynniki rozwoju człowieka. War sza wa, PWN, 1987, 68–88.

[2] Malarecki I: Zarys fi zjologii wysiłku i treningu spor to we-go. Warszawa, Sport i Turystyka, 1975.

[3] Bouchard C, Malina RM: Genetics of phy sio lo gi cal fi t ness and motor performance. Exerc. Sport. Sc. Rev. 1983; 11: 112–115.

[4] Szopa J: W poszukiwaniu struktury mo to rycz no ści: ana li za czynnikowa cech somatycznych, funk cjo nal-nych i prób spraw no ści fi zycznej u dziewcząt i chłop-ców w wie ku 8–19 lat. Wyd. Monografi czne, Kraków, AWF, 1983; 35.

While quoting the reference materials in the text, only squ are

parentheses with the number of the quoted item in Arabic numerals should be given. When qu oting two or more works the square parentheses sho uld con ta in the chronological or der of their pu bli ca tion.

5. Editors’ remarks• All the materials are evaluated and anonymously re-

viewed.• The reviewers’ opinion is passed on to the Author by the

editor.• The proof copy of the article will be sent to the Au thor.

When the necessary corrections are made and the article is approved of by the author, it should be sent back, within 10 days, to the edi torial board of the Antropomotoryka. A delay in sending back the article may postpone its print-ing till the next issue of the maga zine.

• The Publisher of “Antropomotoryka – Kinesiology” reserves the right to do stylistic revisions as well as the possible right to correct nomenclature and to shorten texts.

• The articles should be sent with a cover letter signed by a senior researcher, who is responsible for the content of the article.

• The Author gets a free copy of the “Antro po mo to ryka – Ki-nesiology” in PDF format. The magazine in book from can be ordered on condition of payment when the corrected proof copy is returned.

• Current copies of Antropomotoryka and those from the fi les can be ordered on condition of payment from Kra kowska Księgarnia Kultury Fizycznej, al. Jana Pawła II 78, 31-571 Kraków, tel/fax (012) 681 36 22.

• Summaries in Polish and in English can be found at the following internet address: www.awf.krakow.pl; link: wydawnictwa, czasopisma, antropomotoryka.

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1. „Antropomotoryka” („Kinesiology”) jest ofi cjal nym, re-cenzowanym kwartalnikiem na uko wym Mię dzy na ro do we go Stowarzyszenia Mo to ry ki Spor to wej – IASK, wy da wa nym w Akademii Wy cho wa nia Fi zycz ne go w Kra ko wie pod pa tro-na tem Ko mi te tu Rehabilitacji, Kultury Fizycznej i Integracji Społecznej PAN. W cza so piśmie przed sta wia ne są wyniki ory gi nal nych ba dań i do świad czeń w dzie dzi nie mo to rycz no-ści czło wie ka oraz dziedzin po krew nych. Za miesz cza ne są również pra ce prze glądo we, poglądy oraz dys ku sje oceniające obec ny stan i per spek ty wy rozwoju do rob ku ba daw cze go sze ro ko po ję tej an tro po mo to ry ki.

2. Materiały przeznaczone do druku (dwa eg zem pla rze wy dru ków komputerowych) należy przesyłać łącz nie z dys kiet ką pod adre-sem: Redakcja „An tro po mo to ry ki”, Aka de mia Wychowania Fizycz-nego, al. Jana Pawła II 78, 31-571 Kra ków, tel. 012 683 12 78, tel./fax 012 683 10 76, 12 78 lub na adres poczty elektronicznej e-mail: [email protected].

3. Warunki ogólne• Zgłoszenie pracy do druku jest jed no znacz ne z prze-

kazaniem przez au to ra (au to rów) prawa do własności Redakcji „An tro po mo to ry ki”. Prace za kwa li fi ko wa ne do wy dru ko wa nia stają się zatem wy łącz ną własnością Re-dak cji i nie można ich pu bli ko wać w całości lub w części w in nych cza so pi smach lub mediach cyfrowych bez pi sem nej zgo dy Wydawcy. Praca złożona do druku w „Antropomotoryce” nie może być także wcześniej ani równocześnie złożona w in nym cza so pi śmie, co stwierdza autor w pi sem nym oświad cze niu. W razie umieszczenia w pracy rycin lub ta bel itp., pochodzących z opra co wań opu bli ko wa nych w innych cza so pi smach autor ma obo wią zek uzy ska nia zgody na przedruk.

• Redakcja „Antropomotoryki” przyjmuje do dru ku pra ce poglądowe, oryginalne, doświadczalne, opra co wa nia hi sto rycz ne, komunikaty kon fe ren cyj ne, spra woz da nia ze zjaz dów i konferencji o tema ty ce an tro po mo to rycz nej oraz krót kie stresz cze nia prac wy dru ko wa nych w czaso-pi smach za gra nicz nych i recenzje książek z za kre su teorii mo to rycz ności czło wie ka. Pra ce przeglądowe i ory gi nal ne będą zre da go wa ne w ję zy ku polskim. Ar ty-kuły mogą być pu bli ko wa ne w ję zy ku angielskim.

• Prace przed sta wia ją ce dużą war tość na ukową, za kwa-li fi ko wa ne wcze śniej do wy dru ko wa nia w cza so pi śmie za gra nicz nym, mogą być rów nież zgło szo ne do druku w „An tro po mo to ry ce”, jed nak pod wa run kiem uzyskania przez autora pi sem nej zgo dy Wy daw cy cza so pi sma, w któ rym teksty zostały lub zo staną opu bli ko wa ne.

• Objętość artykułu nie powinna przekraczać 22 stron wy-druku komputerowego, na których zamieszczono po 1800 znaków (np.: 30 wierszy po 60 znaków). Praca musi być napisana jednostronnie z podwójną lub 1,5 interlinią.

4. Zasady konstrukcji pracy• W liście towarzyszącym prosimy podać do kład ne ad re sy

(zarówno prywatny, jak i miejsca pra cy) z zaznaczeniem, gdzie należy przesyłać ko re spon den cję.

• Prace empiryczne powinny mieć następujący układ: ty tuł, imię (imiona) i nazwisko autora (ów), słowa klu czo we w ję-zyku polskim i angielskim, zwięzłe stresz cze nie w języku polskim i an giel skim, wstęp, materiał i metody, wyniki ba dań, dys ku sja, wnioski oraz wy kaz piśmiennictwa.

• Słowa kluczowe powinny liczyć od 3 do 15 wy ra zów. • Streszczenie musi zawierać: cel pracy, materiał, me to dy

lub materiał i metody, wyniki, wnioski.• Na pierwszej stronie opracowania należy za mie ścić

w ko lej ności: tytuł pracy w języku polskim i an giel skim, imię i na zwi sko autora(ów), stopień na uko wy au to ra(ów), miejsce za kła du pra cy, sło wa kluczowe oraz zwięzłe stresz cze nie po pol sku i an giel sku. Jego objętość nie może być mniejsza niż 200 i nie większa niż 250 słów.

• Spis piśmiennictwa należy wydrukować na osob nej stro nie. Prosimy wymienić w nim jedynie po zy cje, na które autor powołuje się w tekście. Po win ny być one nu me ro wa ne cy fra mi arabskimi i usze re go wa ne w ko-lejności cytowania ich w pra cy (a nie w kolejności al fa be-tycz nej). Każdą po zy cję piśmiennictwa należy zapisywać od no we go wiersza. Po nazwisku autora (lub wszyst kich au to rów) cytowanej pracy należy po dać pierw sze li te ry imion, a następnie tytuł pracy w brzmie niu ory gi nal nym oraz nazwę czasopisma, z któ re go praca pochodzi. Skrót tytułu cza so pi sma na leży podać zgodnie z jego brzmie niem w Index Medicus (patrz rów nież: International Com mit tee of Medical Jo ur nal Editors: Uniform re qu ire ments for ma nu-


INFORMACJE DLA AUTORÓW

Informacje dla Autorów

– 12 –

scripts sub mit ted to bio me di cal jo ur nals. N Engl J Med 1997; 336; 309–315).

Przykłady:a) prace wydrukowane w cza so pi smach:

• Casella R, Bubendorf L, Sauter G, Moch H, Michatsch MJ, Gasser TC: Focal neu ro en do cri-ne dif fe ren tia tion lacks pro gno stic si gni fi cian ce in pro sta te core needle biopsies. J Urol, 1998; 160: 406–410.

b) monografi e:• Matthews DE, Farewell VT: Using and Un der-

stan ding Me di cal Statistics, ed 3, re vi sed. Ba sel, Karger, 1996.

c) rozdziały w książkach:• Parren PWHI, Burton DR: Antibodies aga inst

HIV-1 from phage display libraries; Map ping of an im mu ne response and progress towards antiviral im mu no the ra py; in Ca pra JD (ed): An ti bo dy En-gi ne ering. Chem Immunol. Ba sel, Kar ger, 1997, 65: 18–56.

• Kokot F: Fizjologia nerek; w Zieliński J, Leń ko J (red): Uro lo gia, Warszawa, PZWL, 1992, 1: 9–20.

Materiał ilustracyjny musi mieć bardzo dobrą ja kość. Po-wi nien być wykonany na białych kart kach. Re pro duk cje zdjęć oraz fotografi e należy przy go to wać na błysz czą cym papierze fo to gra fi cz nym. Na od wro cie fo to gra fi i trzeba napisać mięk kim ołów kiem jej kolejny numer oraz zazna-czyć strzałką, gdzie znaj du je się jej górny brzeg. Redakcja dru ku je je dy nie zdję cia czarno-białe. Tabele i ryciny na-leży zamieszczać na oddzielnych stronach i nu me ro wać cyframi arabskimi. Ich nagłówki, ob ja śnie nia oraz podpisy pod rycinami i nad tabelami powinny być w języku polskim i angielskim. Przy kład:

Tabela 1., Ryc. 1., Objaśnienia, Chłopcy Table 1., Fig. 1., Commentary, Boys Prosimy używać nawiasów okrą głych. Wzory mu szą być

napisane czytelnie, szcze gól nie wskaźni ki i wykładniki potęg.

Artykuł może być napisany na edytorze od Word 6.0 do XP

lub Star Offi ce 5, Open Offi ce, w for ma cie DOC lub RTF. Ilu stra cje, ta be le i wy kre sy powinny być za miesz czo ne w osobnych plikach, a na wydrukach oraz na mar gi ne sie za zna czo ne ołów kiem ich miej sce w tekście. Wykresy na le ży wy ko nać w kolorze czar nym. Moż na stosować tin ty szare o różnym na tęże niu lub tek stu ry. W opisach, ze względów es te tycz nych, prosimy stosować czcionkę jed no ele men to wą (np. arial). Nie należy nad uży wać wyróżnień (bold, ita lic). Przy ska no wa nych ilustracjach rozdzielczość musi wy no sić co najmniej 300 dpi. Ilustra-cje czar no-białe (line art.) po win ny być w formacie TIFF, a zdjęcia (grey) w for ma cie TIFF lub JPEG (w ni skim stop-

niu kompresji, do 10%). Wszystkie pli ki mogą być spa ko-wa ne RAR-em lub ZIP-em. Po sko pio wa niu na dys kiet kę należy spraw dzić, czy wszyst kie pliki się kopiują. Najlepiej sko pio wać pliki na świeżo sformatowaną dyskietkę.

Spis piśmiennictwa powinien być sporządzony we dług ko lej no ści cytowania:[1] Żekoński Z, Wolański N: Warunki społeczno-by to we

jako czynniki rozwoju człowieka; w Wo lań ski N (red.): Czyn ni ki rozwoju człowieka. Warszawa, PWN, 1987; 68–88.

[2] Malarecki I: Zarys fi zjologii wysiłku i treningu spor to we-go. Warszawa, Sport i Turystyka, 1975.

[3] Bouchard C, Malina RM: Genetics of phy sio lo gi cal fi t ness and motor performance. Exerc Sport Sc Rev, 1983; 11: 112–115.

[4] Szopa J: W poszukiwaniu struktury mo to rycz no ści: ana li za czynnikowa cech somatycznych, funk cjo nal-nych i prób spraw no ści fi zycznej u dziewcząt i chłop-ców w wie ku 8–19 lat. Wyd. Monografi czne, Kra ków, AWF, 1988; 35.

Powołując się w tekście na daną pozycję pi śmien nic-

twa na le ży podać w nawiasie kwadratowym tylko cy frę arab ską. Przy ta cza jąc dwie lub większą ich licz bę należy podawać w na wia sie kwa dra to wym ko lej ność chro no lo-gicz ną ich wy da nia.

5. Uwagi redakcji• Wszystkie prace podlegają ocenie i są ano ni mo wo re cen-

zo wa ne.• Redakcja zapoznaje autora z uwagami re cen zen tów.• Odbitka szczotkowa pracy jest wysyłana do Au to ra. Po

nie zbęd nej korekcie i akceptacji pracy do druku na leży ją ode słać w terminie do 10 dni na adres Re dak cji „An tro-po mo to ry ki”. Prze trzy my wa nie ko rek ty może spowodować przesunięcie artykułu do na stęp ne go nu me ru.

• Redakcja „Antropomotoryki” zastrzega sobie prawo adiu-stacji, dokonywania poprawek w zakresie ujednolicania nazewnictwa i ewentualnego skracania tekstów.

• Przysyłane artykuły do druku powinny być kierowane do Redakcji pismem przewodnim, podpisanym przez samodzielnego pracownika nauki, równocześnie odpo-wiadającego za merytoryczną stronę opracowania.

• Autor otrzymuje bezpłatnie plik PDF z zawartością nu-meru „An tro po mo to ry ki”, w którym zamieszczono jego pracę. Cza so pi smo w formie książkowej moż na zamówić odpłatnie przy zwro cie ko rek ty autorskiej.

• Pełne numery bieżące i archiwalne „An tro po mo to ry ki” moż na zamówić odpłatnie w Krakowskiej Księ gar ni Kultury Fizycznej, al. Jana Pawła II 78, 31-571 Kra ków, tel/fax (012) 681 36 22.

• Streszczenia w języku polskim i angielskim są za miesz-czo ne na stronie internetowej: www.awf.kra kow.pl; link: wydawnictwa, czasopisma, antropomotoryka.

DISSERTATIONS AND ARTICLESROZPRAWY I ARTYKUŁY

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THE EFFECT OF AN ANAEROBIC TEST ON LUNG INDICES IN SOME ELITE BASKETBALL PLAYERS

WPŁYW TESTU WYDOLNOŚCI BEZTLENOWEJ RAST NA WSKAŹNIKI CZYNNOŚCI PŁUC U KOSZYKARZY

WYSOKIEGO WYCZYNU

Mohsen Ghanbarzadeh*, Abdul Hamid Habibi*, Mohammad Reza Zadkarami**, Mehdi Bustani***, Maryam Mohammadi****

*****PhD, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Science, Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran*****PhD, Faculty of Mathematical Sciences and Computer, Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran*****MA, Student of PE and Sport Science, Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran*****MA, Islamic Azad University at Sousangerd Branch, Sousangerd, Iran

Key words: Pulmonary Function Test, Running-Based Anaerobic Sprint Test (RAST test)

Słowa kluczowe: próby czynnościowe płuc, test biegowy wydolności beztlenowej RAST

Aim of the work. The main goal of this research was comparing the lung indices of 20 outstanding basketball players in Khouzestan province in Iran before and after the RAST test. Actually, the study examined the pos-sible presence or absence of bronchial spasms among the athletes who had had several years of background in intense athletic activities. The subjects consisted of 20 elite basketball players from the eight teams which were present in Khouzestan basketball league.Their average age, weight, and height ranges were 26.55, 82.34 kg, and 186.35 cm; respectively. The average BMI was 23.69 kg/m². The research made a cross comparison among the pulmonary function indices MVV, FEF25-75, PEF, FEV1/FVC, FVC, FEV1 which were measured both before and after the RAST test.

Material and methods. Before and after the RAST test, the pulmonary function indices were measured. The sample population was given light basketball exercises for 10 minutes prior to the RAST test.

Results. In order to compare the obtained results, they were subjected to a t-test. The final results revealed no significant difference between the values related to MVV FEV1/FVC (p > 0.05); however, a significant de-crease was observed in the values FEF25-75, PEF, FVC and FEV1 being respectively 12.60%, 10.28%, 7.82% and 5.41% (p < 0.05).

Conclusions. Based on the definition of bronchial spasms arising from athletic exercise, the existence of such bronchial spasms in the sample population could be defined only based on a single value, that is a 19% decrease in FEV1 in over 60% of the sample population.

Cel pracy. Pomiar i porównanie wskaźników czynności płuc przed i po wykonaniu testu biegowego wydol-ności beztlenowej RAST (Running-Based Anaerobic Sprint Test) u 20 czołowych koszykarzy z irańskiej prowincji Chuzestan. Ustalenie, na podstawie zmiany których wskaźników czynności płuc można ustalić wystąpienie skurczu oskrzeli u badanych. W trakcie analizy danych przeprowadzono badanie krzyżowe parametrów pracy płuc, które zmierzono przed i po fazie beztlenowej wysiłku. Analizą objęto dane liczbowe dotyczące maksymal-


SUMMARY • STRESZCZENIE

M. Ghanbarzadeh, A.H. Habibi, M.R. Zadkarami, M. Bustani, M. Mohammadi

– 16 –

nej wentylacji dowolnej (MVV), przepływu w środku natężonego wydechu (FEF25-75), szczytowego przepływu oddechowego (PEF), a także ilorazu jednosekundowej objętości natężonego wydechu i natężonej pojemności życiowej (FEV1/FVC).

Materiał i metody. Z ośmiu drużyn ligi koszykarskiej Chuzestanu wybrano 20 zawodników legitymujących się co najmniej pięcioletnim stażem w sporcie zawodowym. Średni wiek badanych, mierzony w latach, wynosił 26,55; podczas gdy średnia masa ciała i wysokość – odpowiednio 82,34 kg i 186,35 cm, a wskaźnik BMI – to 23,69 kg/m2. Przed i po przeprowadzeniu testu wydolności beztlenowej RAST zmierzono wskaźniki pracy płuc badanych, a 10 minut przed testem przeprowadzono rozgrzewkę.

Wyniki. Analiza danych z obu pomiarów, do której przeprowadzenia posłużono się testem t-Studenta, nie ujawniła istotnych statystycznie różnic między wartościami MVV i FEV1/FVC (p>0,05). Odnotowano natomiast istotny statystycznie spadek wartości FEF25-75, PEF, FVC i FEV1 – odpowiednio o 12,60%, 10,28%, 7,82% i 5,41% (p < 0,05).

Wnioski. Na podstawie przyjętej definicji skurczu oskrzeli wskutek wykonywania forsownych ćwiczeń fizycz-nych (testu RAST) stwierdzono, że na jego wystąpienie w objętej badaniami grupie wskazuje zmiana jednego parametru: obniżenie o 19% wysokości wskaźnika FEV1 u ponad 60% osób.

Introduction

The pulmonary system is composed of the lungs, the central nervous system, the chest cage, the dia-phragm and the muscles between the chest bones, and the blood circulation system within the lungs1. The central nervous system is responsible for controlling the muscles of the chest cage which act as a pump for the pulmonary system [1]. The act of breathing, which refers to the act of inhaling the air into the lungs and exhaling it from them, is reliant upon the pulmonary system function [2]. Any defi ciency in the operation of the trachea and the air passages will result in an insuffi ciency in the inhalation and exhalation of theair and this, in turn, may affect the amount of oxy-gen consumed during both the resting phase and thewarm up calisthenics. Consequently, the person’s health will be in danger. Resistance to the inhala-tion of the air is the most common cause of breath insuffi ciency. Based on the fact that bronchial spasms occur as a result of long time excercises, sub-jects of the present study were selected from athletes with at least 5 years of background in the professionl level.

The obstruction of the air passages leads to fatal harms and this obstruction may happen in any part of these passages such as the smallest air channels, the trachea bronchial system, the larynx, and the esopha-gus [3]. During heavy athletic exercises, the amount of the inhaled air may increase ten to twenty times, how-

1 Abbreviations: MVV – maximal voluntary ventilation; FVC – forced vital capacity; FEV1– forced expiratory volume in 1 sec; FEV1/FVC – forced expiratory volume in 1 sec / force vital capacity; FEF25-75% – forced expira-tory fl ow; MEFR – maximum expiratory fl ow rate; PEF – peak expiratory fl ow; RAST – Running-Based Anaerobic Sprint Test.

ever, the pulmonary system is made in a way that is ca-pable of conforming itself with severe and intense oxy-gen demands during both short- and long-term athletic activities. Anyway, those individuals who abnormally consume large amount of oxygen during exhaustive athletic exercises may experience inhalation problems [4]. There is some evidence proving that performing exhaustively, athletes will face a severe slow-down in arterial oxygen. This slow-down happens as a result of the distributing limitations which themselves arise from a decrease in the time that red blood corpuscles remain in lung capillaries [5].

According to Pelkonen and co-workers [6], continu-ous athletic exercise can optimize the function of the pulmonary system. On the contrary, some researches [7] have revealed that continuous athletic exercise can be one of the causes of bronchial spasms. Evidently, a large percentage of athletes with no prior history of asthma or bronchial spasms will develop such symp-toms during or after athletic exercise. These symptoms will appear from the very beginning of the athletic exer-cise up to 30 minutes after the ending of the exercise; however, its peak is approximately between fi ve to ten minutes from the outset of the athletic exercise and will continue until about 30 minutes after it [8]. Bronchial spasms are also common in elite athletes [6]. To cite an example, in the American National Team (67 out of the total 597 athletes), 11% of the athletes who par-ticipated in the 1984 Olympic Games [9], and 23% of those who took part in the Winter Olympics in 1998, were diagnosed as having asthma or athletic asthma characteristics [10]. Ziaee and co-workers [11] per-formed pulmonary function tests on professional and semi-professional basketball players prior to and after a basketball match. Prior to the outset of the activity,

The effect of an anaerobic test on lung indices in some elite basketball players

– 17 –

a test was taken in order to establish the base case values. In the second phase, 10 minutes after the out-set of the activity the same test was administered and then the results from the two phases were compared. The fi nal results revealed that the amount of FVC and FEV1 in both groups had decreased after beginning the activity; however, this decrease was signifi cant only in the case of the professional group and not in the case of the other group. In neither of the groups a signifi cant change was observed in the other pulmonary indices.

Some researchers [12] carried out a study on the occurrence of bronchial spasms arising from athletic exercise in over 107 university athletes in 22 differ-ent sport fi elds in the United States. The fi nal results showed an index of 84% for the occurrence of bronchial spasms in those sport fi elds which required extensive aerobic activity and an index of 20% for the occurrence of the same factor in the case of those sports which involved minimum aerobic activity.

Varma and co-workers [13] compared the indices related to the pulmonary function among the athletes from four different sport fi elds in India. In this study, 18 soccer, 19 hockey, and 18 basketball players, and 20 swimmers were chosen as the subjects. The control group consisted of 20 medical students. The results in-dicated that, in comparison to the control group, all four experimental groups had higher rates in the indices of FVC/FEV1 and PEF. Among these groups, the swim-mers had the highest rate of increase in the pulmonary function indices (FVC, PEF and FEV1).

Abdul and co-workers [14] carried out a study on the bronchial spasms in men among some athletes in Karachi, Pakistan. 179 athletes who had daily regular athletic exercise were selected as the sample popula-tion. Using a Spirometer, the peak expiratory fl ow rate (PEFR) was measured at the outset of the exercise (running with an increase of 70% in heart beat rate) and subsequently at intervals of 5, 15 and 30 minutes. 13 athletes had a decrease of +15% in the PEFR index in all three intervals. The extent of bronchial spasms was determined to be 7.26% among these athletes [14].

Ozturan and co-workres [15] applied pulmonary function tests for elite basketball players prior to and after a speed exercise session. Prior to the experiment, The amounts of VC, FVC, FEV1, MVV and PEF were higher than the amounts recorded to be normal for the age, height and weight of the sample population; how-ever, after the speed exercise, the same amounts were less than the norms recorded for their age, height and weight. The difference between some of the indices

such as FEV 1 and PEF was signifi cantly meaningful before and after the experiment.

Mc Kenzie and co-workers [16] evaluated the bron-chial contraction arising from exercise among 12 ath-letes who had already showed signs of athletic asthma. Two methods were applied for measuring the variations in the pulmonary function, namely; continuous warm up drills (i.e. 15 minutes of running on a treadmill with 60% increase in oxygen intake) and alternate warm up drills (eight 30 second sprints with rest periods of ap-proximately 1.5 seconds). In addition to the aforemen-tioned group, a control group was also selected. For every 2 minutes in a twenty-fi ve-minute recovery period interval, the three indices FVC/ FEV1 and MEFR were measured. The results indicated that a fi fteen-minute continuous warm up prior to the exercise would have a signifi cant effect on decreasing the bronchial contrac-tion.

Mehmet Unal and co-workers [17] also investigated the existence and the commonality of bronchial spasms in athletes. For this purpose, 126 athletes which con-sisted of 85 soccer players, 25 martial art athletes, 11 swimmers, and 5 wrestlers were chosen as the sub-jects. In these groups, before and after a ten-minute period of exercise on the treadmill, the Spirometer val-ues were evaluated using the Bruce Protocol. 11% of the population (that is 14 athletes) had more than 10% decrease in their PEF. 14% of them (that is 18 athletes) showed a decrease rate of more than 15% in FEF25-75, and fi nally, a decrease rate of over 15% was reported for 11% of these athletes (that is 14 athletes). Bronchial spasms were observed in 11% to 14% of the athletes which paralleled those of the other researches.

Parkkari and co-workers [18] carried out a study on 20 Finnish elite skiers in order to determine the exis-tence of bronchial spasms among them. After measur-ing the Spirometer values it was observed that 35% of the skiers suffered from some degree of bronchial spasms arising from the athletic exercise. Among the pulmonary indices, the largest decrease was in the rate of PEF.

Methodology

The effect of anaerobic athletic activities on the pul-monary function indices has been investigated in a number of studies. The present research which was a semi-empirical one focused on investigating the ex-tent of the bronchial spasms resulting from athletic ex-ercise. In order to select the sample population it was


– 18 –

necessary to collect some information, fi rst. As a mat-ter of fact, any background of professional activity in a sport fi eld, having respiration diseases like asthma or allergy, background of smoking, and any skeletal disorders such as kyphosis can affect the lung indi-ces. Therefore, it was necessary to ask the subjects about these facts. For this purpose, before the com-mencement of the treatment, some questionnaires were distributed among some athletes and at least 20 basketball players were selected from the eight pro-fessional basketball teams in Khouzestan province in Iran. Actually, their average age range was between 21 and 29 and most of them had played basketball in-tensely for more than 10 years, but since the criterion for defi ning the professional experience was the pres-ence in the province super leagues, a fi ve-year period of professional experience was considered for the subjects. That is, they had participated in many other leagues, as well. Neither of the players had a history of asthma, allergy or any other pulmonary diseases. Additionally, none of them had skeletal deformities es-pecially in the chest cage region.

Using the Spirometer, the pulmonary function indi-ces FVC, FVC/FEV1, FEV1, MVV, FEF25-75 and PEF were measured in the pre-test phase. In the next phase, for every ten minutes of basketball activity, a running-based anaerobic sprint test (RAST) was taken and in the post-test phase, the same pulmonary function in-dices were measured, repeatedly. A Japanese digital Spirometer set, the HI-601 model, was used to mea-sure the pulmonary function indices. In order to com-pare the obtained results, the pulmonary function indi-ces of the pre- and post test stages were compared and a t-test was applied in order to determine the correla-tion coeffi cient between the obtained values. The indi-ces weight, height, age, and BMI were also measured and recorded. In order to analyze the data, the SPSS software, the 11.5 version, was utilized and the level of signifi cance was 0.05.

Spirometer test measurement

The variables gender, age, height, weight and envi-ronmental temperature were carefully recorded and entered into the Spirometer. Since the variables height and weight are among the important variables for analyzing the pulmonary function test results, and the Spirometer estimates each of the Spirometric vari-ables according to the weight and height of the sub-jects, there was an attempt to measure these values

with great degree of accuracy. Each candidate had to perform the test at least three times and the best record was registered.

RAST Test

The RAST test was performed as six 35-meter sprints, both alternately and with an active rest period of 10 sec-onds. The RAST test was in the form of an anaerobic speed running test (6 two-way paths). This test was de-veloped by Volor Hampton University for implementing anaerobic excercises. Moreover, this test is applicable for those athletes that their sport skills are based on periodic and anaerobic running. The fatigue index per-cent in this test is almost high and that is why this test was selected. The nature of this test is consistent with basketball and anaerobic activities.

Results

In this research, considering the pre- and post-test stag-es, a signifi cant decrease was observed in the indices FEV1, FVC, PEFR and FEF25-75. As it can be under-stood from the Table 1, these decreases were respec-tively 12.60%, 10.28%, 7.82% and 5.41% (p < 0.05). However, no signifi cant changes were identifi ed be-tween the indices FVC, FEV1, and MVV (p > 0.05). Based on the defi nition of Bronchial spasms which is explained as any decrease more than 10% in the FEV1 and more than 15% in PEFR or a decrease more than 25% in FEF25-75 [19, 20]; it can be claimed that in the present study, only one of the bronchial spasm indices arising from athletic exercise, that is the FEV1 index was present (with a mean value of 19% decrease in 60% of the subjects). The existence of such bronchial spasms in the sample population could be defi ned only based on a single value, that is, a 19% decrease in FEV1 in over 60% of the sample population.

The following fi gure represents the average amounts of the pulmonary indices FVC and FEV1 in the pre- and post-test stages.

The second fi gure represents the average amounts of the pulmonary indices FVC/FEV1 and PEFR in the pre- and post-test stages.

The third fi gure represents the average values for the pulmonary indices FEF25-75 and MVV in the pre- and post-test stages.

Figure 1 demonstrates the changes related to the lung indices FVC and FEV1, in the pre- and post-test stages. With regard to p-value = 0/001 for FEV1 and


– 19 –

p-value = 0/005 for FVC that are less than 0/05, indi-cating it as a meaningful level, meaningful changes (meaningful decrease) was observed in these two in-dices.

In Figure 2 changes in the lungs indices FEV1/FVC and PEFR is observable in the pre- and post-test stages. Considering p-value = 0/651 for FEV1/FVC and p-value = 0/001 for PEFR, meaningful changes (mean-ingful decrease) in the index PEFR were observed in the pre- and post-test stages. But in the case of the lung index FEV1/FVC no meaningful changes were re-ported.

Figure 3 represents the changes related to the lung indices FEF25-75 and MVV in the pre- and post-test stages. With regard to p-value = 0/005 for FEF25-75 and p-value = 0/109 for MVV, meaningful changes (meaningful decrease) can be claimed for the index FEF25-75 in the pre- and post-test stages. But no signifi cant change was observed in the case of the lung index MVV.

Fig. 1. The average values for the pulmonary indices FEV1 and FVC in the pre- and post-tests stages

Table 1. The average values for the pulmonary indices FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC, PEF, FEF25-75, and MVV in the pre- and post-test

Statistical index stage average Standard

deviationAmount of

t Samples P

FEV1Pre-test 82.93 7.47

5.17 19 0.001Post test 72.48 10.89

FVCPre-test 81.47 5.16

9.34 19 0.005Post test 73.07 5.64

FEV1/FVCPre-test 117.71 5.83

0.71719

0.651Post test 115.36 14.21

PEFPre-test 81.86 5.92

7.37 19 0.001Post test 75.48 6.76

FEF25-75Pre-test 78.85 4.75

7.49 19 0.001Post test 74.59 5.25

MVVPre-test 117.29 15.81

1.67 19 0.109Post test 112.22 19.79

50

60

70

80

90

100

pre-test post-test

FVCFEV1

Fig. 2. The average values for the pulmonary indices FVC/FEV1 and PEFR in the pre- and post-test stages

5060708090100110120130

FEV1/FVC PEFR

pre-testpost-test

Fig. 3. The average values for the pulmonary indices FEF25-75 and MVV in the pre- and post-test stages

5060708090100110120130

FEF25-75 MVV

pre-testpost-test


– 20 –

Discussion and conclusion

In this part, with the aim of mentioning some of the re-searches with similar achievements, the fi ndings of the present study are compared with those of some others. Any way, there are some contradictions between this research and some others which are reported, as well.

By measuring the indices related to pulmonary func-tion it is possible to determine the rate of muscle devel-opment, the existence of any obstruction or limitation in the air passages, and the existence or non-existence of swelling and bronchial spasms arising from exercise in a sample population. The most important index which can measure the strength of pulmonary muscles, espe-cially the muscles associated with inhaling, is the maxi-mal voluntary ventilation index (MVV). The existence of values higher than the predicted ones, probably, indi-cates the strength of these muscles [4].

Another means of evaluating the exhale resistance of air passages is investigating the results of a rapid exhalation into a Spirometer. The Spirometer is used for measuring vital signs known as FVC [4]. An index like the amount of exhaled air in the fi rst second (FEV1) is a good index for determining the exhale resistance in the air passages.

The FVC index is one of the suitable indices ap-plied for determining the exhale resistance of the air passages, the lungs’ capacity, and the amount of the air which can be inhaled. This index depends on the elasticity of the lungs and the resistance of the air pas-sages. Studies have shown that the elasticity of the lungs, the resistance of the air passages in the alveolus regions, and the narrowing and compliance of the air passages are among the physiological mechanisms which can determine the amount of air passing through the lungs. The physiological conditions which decrease the elastic tension of the lungs and increase the resis-tance of the air passages, reduces the speed of the air fl ow, signifi cantly.

In addition, the indices FEV1, PEFR and FEF25-75 are also important for studying the extent of bronchial spasms arising from exercise among athletes [19]. If af-ter any activity the rate of FEV1 reaches a level of +10%, the rate of PEFR will reach a level of +15% and the rate of FEF 25-75 will increase by +25%. The resulting phe-nomenon is defi ned as bronchial spasms [19–21]. Some researches consider a decrease of approximately 6.5% as slight bronchial spasms, too [18, 21, 22].

In the present research, no signifi cant difference was seen in the indices MV, and FEV1/FVC in both the

pre- and post-test stages. In addition, among all the in-dices measured, the amounts of these two indices were higher than those values that had been predicted by the Spirometer on the basis of the age, gender, weight and height of the sample population. As these two in-dices are directly related to the pulmonary muscles, especially the rib cage muscles; it seems that in the sample population who had over fi ve years of profes-sional basketball training, the rib cage muscles had been fortifi ed and strengthened. Any decrease in the amount of the indices MVV and FEV1/FVC implies that these muscles have been enfeebled. Noticeably, in this study there was no signifi cant decrease in the amount of the mentioned indices.

It is believed that exercising in the cold weather is one of the most important causes of bronchial spasms among athletes. Contrary to this belief, in the present study which was carried out in a warm climate and the sample population had had an extensive exposure to training in such climate, again one of the bronchial spasm indices was observed among the sample popu-lation (a 19% decrease in the FEV1 index among 12 members of the sample group). It can be implied that the type of exercise rather than the environmental temperature can be considered as a reason for such spasms.

The research also indicated a signifi cant decrease in the values of FEV1 PEFR, FVC and FEF25-75, but no meaningful difference was identifi ed in MVV and FEV1/FVC indices. These fi ndings are in accordance with those obtained by numerous researchers [12, 14–18]. Anyway, these results contradicted the fi ndings of Varma and co-workers [13], since the latter research compared four different sport fi elds and made use of a different methodology.

The obtained results paralleled the fi ndings of Mehmet Unal and co-workers [17] in a study carried out in the case of the athletes from four different sport fi elds, but the methodologies and the protocols applied in Mehmet Unal’s study and the present study varied greatly. If, in the present research, instead of the RAST protocol, a simple exercise protocol (such as the tread-mill exercise utilized in Mehmet Unal’s research) had been applied, the results of the study would have been rather different from what was reported. In the research performed by Ozturan and co-workers [15] on a group of basketball players, a signifi cant difference was ob-served in the pulmonary function indices measured after the pre- and post RAST tests; however, the differ-ence was attributed to the exhaustion, especially in the


– 21 –

pulmonary muscles; rather than the swelling or obstruc-tion of the air passages.

Overall, based on all these fi ndings it can be claimed that since the sample population participated in an ex-tensive anaerobic exercise, and consequently required continuous severe breathing, they encountered a type of swelling and spasm known as a bronchial spasm (al-beit with the existence of only one index). As a matter

of fact, the basketball is an anaerobic sport which re-quires high rate of inhalation and exhalation, this matter together with the speed of the air in the windpipe led to the development of symptoms of bronchial spasms in these athletes [22]. Also, this may be partly due to performing an anaerobic exercise over a long period of time which would ultimately decrease the pulmonary function indices in the athletes.

[1] Sanadgol H: Human physiology [in farsi], vol. I. Yazd, Yazd Publishers, 1992.

[2] Gayton A: Medical physiology [in farsi; transl. by Shadan F], vol. I. Tehran, Chehr Publications, 2000.

[3] West JB: Applied pulmonary physiology [in farsi; transl. by Amiri M, Shamszadeh H], Vol. I, Tehran, Diba Publications, 1993.

[4] Wilmore J: Sports physiology and body activity [in farsi; transl. by Moeini Z], vol. I. Tehran, Mobtakeran Publica-tions, 1999.

[5] Powers SK, Howley ET: Exercise physiology, vol. I. New York, McGraw Hill, 2001.

[6] Pelkonen M, Notkola IL, Lakka T, Tukiainen HO, Kivinen P, Nissinen A: Delaying decline in pulmonary function with physi-cal activity: A 25-Year Follow-up. American Journal of Respi-ratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2003; 168: 494–499.

[7] Levine JA, Eberhardt NL, Jensen MD: Role of non-exer-cise activity thermo genesis. American Journal of Respira-tory and Critical Care Medicine, 2004;168: 494–499.

[8] Farhoudi F, Hossaynee M, Fatehi G: What is sports’ asthma? How to deal with it? Medical Journal of Iran, 2004; 1(22), 42–54.

[9] Voy RO: The Olympic committee experience with exercise-induced bronchiospasm. Medical Science and Sports Exercise Journal, 1984; 18: 328–330.

[10] Wilber RL, Rundell KW, Szmedra L, Jenkison DM, Im J, Drake SD: Incidence of exercise-induced bronchospasm in olympic winter sport athletes. Medical Science and Sports Exercise, 2000; 32,732–737.

[11] Ziaee V, Ahmadinejad Z, Farahi A, Movahedi M, Mansoor-nia MA: Comparison of pulmonary function parameters changes among professional and semi-professional bas-ketball players. Medical Journal of Iran, 2006; 9: 18–27.

[12] Parsons JP, Kaeding C, Phillips G, Jarjoura D, Wadley G, Mastronarde JG: Prevalence of exercise-induced bronchospasm in a cohort of Varsity College Athletes. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2007; 39(9): 1487–1492.

[13] Varma N, Mehrotra PK, Tiwari S, Kumar P: Pulmonary function in Indian sportsmen playing different sports. Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 1998; 42(3): 412–416.

[14] Abdul-Ahad J, Perwaiz M, Sandila N, Ahmed S, Tousi S: Exercise-induced bronchial spasm in male athlete sat Karachi. Department of Physiology, Ziauddin Medical University, 2002; 22(4): 94–99.

[15] Ozturan D, Beydagi H, Ergenoglu T, Ekinci E, Kilicoglu MA, Bozkurt AI: Effect of acute on respiratory function tests of basketball players. Sports Medicine Journal, 1999; 21(1): 10–14.

[16] Mckenzie DC, Mcluckie SL, Stirling D: The protective ef-fects of continuous and interval exercise in athletes with exercise-induced asthma. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 1994; 26(8): 951–956.

[17] Mehmet U, Turker S, Deniz N, Vakur A, Abidin K: The prevalence exercise-induced bronchoconstriction in elite athletes. Journal of Sports Sciences and Medicine, 2004; 3(11), 57–59.

[18] Parkkari J, Laitinen J, Pohjantahti H: Exercise-induced bronchospasm among healthy elite cross country skiers and non-athletic students. Sports Medicine Journal, 2002; 13: 98–102.

[19] Helenius IJ, Haahtela T: Allergy and asthma in elite sum-mer sport athletes. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2000; 106(26): 444–452.

[20] Rundell KW, Jenkison DM: Exercise-induced bronchos-pasm in elite athletes. Sports Medicine Journal, 2002; 32: 583–600.

[21] Mannix ET, Manfredi F, Farber MO: A comparison of two challenge tests for identifying exercise-induced bron-chospasm in fi gure skaters. American College of Chest Physicians, 1999; 115, 649–653.

[22] Hoffman JR: Physiology of basketball; in McKeag G (ed.): Basketball. Malden, Blackwell Science, 2003; 18: 12–24.

LITERATURE • PIŚMIENNICTWO

– 23 –

PHILOSOPHY OF EXPERT MODELING OF SPORT PERFORMANCE OF HIGH LEVEL ATHLETES

FILOZOFIA EKSPERCKIEGO MODELOWANIA WYSTĘPU SPORTOWEGO WYSOKIEGO WYCZYNU

Bojan Jošt*, Janez Pustovrh*, Janez Vodičar**

** Prof., Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia** Asist., Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Key words: sport philosophy, sport performance, expert modelingSłowa kluczowe: filozofia sportu, występ sportowy, modelowanie eksperckie

Aim of the work. Successful performance in sport is presently much more than a result achieved by the athlete; it is an element in organizational culture of sports with its values and achievements. Since the basic goal of organization of sports lies in this culture, the process of managing must consider various invisible and visible constituents important for the development of organizational culture of sports. The invisible constituents are those that attract people to sport, while among the visible ones are such as competition rules, execution of competitions, response to sports competitions, staff engaged in sport, technology of sports, transformation processes, sports events, etc.

Material and methods. Theory of performance in sport studies will enable the attainment of the set target criteria on individual performance standards. It can be studied only by means of analysis of a set of a variety of variables that, in the relationship of cause and effect, influence the criterion states on individual performance standards. At the Faculty of Sports of the University of Ljubljana, we have started with the formulation of an expert system called SPORT EXPERT, application of which will enable reaching more efficient decisions in the management of the various sources involved in performance in sports.

Results and conclusions. The results of expert systems are only an aid that can enable better manage-ment of people in terms of elevation of performance on the selected standards and criteria. In this way, the expert decisions will be based on more scientific grounds; the value of information will be higher, andthe system itself will be permanently oriented towards the growth of the quality of the organizational culture of sports.

Cel pracy. Zakończony sukcesem występ na zawodach to znacznie więcej niż sam wynik – to element kul-tury organizacyjnej sportu z wszystkimi jej wartościami i osiągnięciami. Podstawowym celem organizacji sportujest promocja tej kultury, a zatem w procesie zarządzania sportem należy brać pod uwagę jej uchwytne i nieuchwytne składniki. Podczas gdy do składników nieuchwytnych zaliczymy te czynniki, które przyciągają do sportu, w grupie czynników uchwytnych umieścimy same zasady rywalizacji, występ i postawę spor-towca na zawodach, wkład personelu pomocniczego, zdobycze technologii, procesy transformacji, imprezy sportowe itp.

Materiał i metody. Za pomocą teorii występu sportowego możliwe będzie ujednolicenie standardów dla poszczególnych wykonań zawodniczych, na co pozwoli analiza szeregu zmiennych poprzez badanie związków przyczynowo-skutkowych, ustalenie wpływu tworzonych standardów na poszczególne wykonania zawodnicze. Pracownicy Wydziału Sportu Uniwersytetu w Lublanie rozpoczęli pracę nad systemem eksperckim o nazwie SPORT EXPERT, którego zastosowanie usprawni proces podejmowania decyzji w zarządzaniu różnymi elementami występu sportowego.



Bojan Jošt, Janez Pustovrh, Janez Vodičar

– 24 –

Wyniki i wnioski. System ekspercki jest użytecznym narzędziem pomocniczym umożliwiającym polepszenie jakości wykonania za pomocą wybranych norm i kryteriów. Dzięki niemu decyzje rzeczoznawców w większym stopniu będą opierać się na naukowych podstawach, wzrośnie także wartość przekazywanych informacji, a system zostanie ukierunkowany na doskonalenie kultury organizacyjnej sportu.

Introduction

Successful performance in sport is presently much more than just a result achieved by the athlete; it is cul-ture in the sociological and anthropological sense as it refl ects its basic values and achievements. At every moment in history, the culture of success, as a con-stituent of development of a given society and its mem-bers, depends on a system of symbols [1] that are ex-pressed in myths, ideologies, rules, values, paragons and other various cultural artefacts (rituals, customs, special vocabulary, metaphors, acronyms, stories, leg-ends, tradition, architecture, etc.). Organizational and management aspects of sport culture deal with the organization of sports and the characteristics of man-agement of sports organizations and their members. The basic goal of organization of sports lies in the elevation of the organizational culture of sports. This culture is revealed in the various visible and invisible constituents. The invisible constituents are those that attract people to sport. The visible ones are a system of values and the level of development of the elemen-tary factors involved in the organizational culture of sport (competition rules, execution of competitions, re-sponse to sports competitions, staff engaged in sport, technology of sports, transformation processes, sports events, etc.)

Managing sports organizations must be directed towards the development of the constituents of the organizational culture of sport. Management is a men-tal, intuitive, sensatory activity of people in an organi-zational system [2]. This is a key subsystem in sports organizations as it connects and directs all other sub-systems towards the achievement of the desired qual-ity or performance level. Management as a science is based, from the aspect of its contents, on the theory of sports and – above all – on the theory of performance, while from the methodological aspect, it is based on modeling and cybernetics as a science dealing with the management of complex dynamic systems.

In sports management, we have to deal with – knowingly or unknowingly – expert modeling within the space of the theory of performance in sports whenever we think, make a decision, describe phenomena, peo-ple around us; whenever we are involved in concrete

practice, in the formation of a certain notion (i.e. model of thought) about objects; whenever we carry out sim-ple thought simulations of the behavior of models, think about proper management decisions etc.

The most important realization for management is that, in its management practice, there exists the ex-ternal world which is independent of us and which is outside our observation. In order to represent it, we set up simplifi ed verbal, descriptive, physical, pictorial, mathematical models. In modeling knowledge, we en-counter smaller and larger problems. The larger prob-lems occur in the study of complex fi elds, phenomena, objects, processes, events, whose interior nature and functioning is more or less inaccessible to us. Since we only have access to external behavior, we can draw conclusions about internal mechanisms, properties, characteristics only by means of external indicators. In most cases, however, we are not able – due to a large number of variables and their mutual interactions – to describe all of them and to place them into a coherent functional cause-and-effect whole.

Theory of performance in sport studies, especially the content-related standards and criteria of perfor-mance and the manner of management, will enable the attainment of the set target criteria on individual performance standards. Theory of performance can be studied only by means of analysis of a set of a variety of variables which, in the relationship of cause and effect, infl uence the criterion states on individual performance standards. From the systems cybernetic aspect of the theory of performance in sport, it is thus fi rst necessary to formulate the standards and criteria of performance and to determine on the basis of them the target crite-rion states and functions. In the theory of performance, standards of performance represent basic axioms by means of which we assess the achievements in the fi eld of sport. In sport, the axioms according to which sports competitions take place are well known; they are laid down in advance in the form of competition rules and are also strictly supervised during competition. Violation of the rules of competition unavoidably results in disqualifi cation and reduction of the performance rate of the athlete. However, for high achievements in sport it is necessary to fi rst defi ne the relations between the fi nal achievements and the sub-criterion standards

Philosophy of expert modeling of sport performance of high level athletes

– 25 –

which are in a functional logical connection with these achievements [3].

From formal logical or strictly functional point, pe-netration into the depth of these sub-criterion variables of performance soon comes to an end due to the fact that we reach the limit where we can no longer draw any conclusions about the sub-criterion functions of performance in a direct manner, i.e. such conclusions can be drawn only indirectly by means of stochastic and probability relations. To set up an appropriate system of the factors involved in performance in sports is not an easy task, especially if we also want to penetrate the depths of this system [4].

The construction and supplementing of the system of performance factors is especially productive if it car-ried out by modeling. However, here we can very quickly be confronted with the dangers and traps of modeling; models are and will also always refl ect the views of their authors. Yet, without suitable model support, based on the knowledge of sports science, we also cannot ex-pect progress in sport. Thus, modeling within the space of theory and its application to practice is necessary.

Our efforts have resulted in the construction of one possible model of performance in sports, which is based on the philosophical empirical hypothetical sys-tems approach. As the performance model is future-ori-ented, we have called it a potential performance model. Performance models can be observed and studied on three basic levels (=macro, mezzo, and micro). The micro level represents the smallest complete system which is based on a single person as an individual. The mezzo level represents a symbiosis of the systems de-fi ned on the micro level. The macro level represents a symbiosis of the systems on the middle level. The mezzo and macro levels represent systems of higher order. Performance in sports depends on a balanced development of all three levels of the performance sys-tems. As on all levels there are concerned systems that are based on real life, the factors of environment are permanently affecting the behavior and functioning of these systems. These factors can have an extremely important and sometimes even a decisive role in the functioning of the systems.

The expert modeling of the knowledge base from the aspect of the athlete’s performance takes place by means of the model facts (=constituents of the knowl-edge base) and rules with which we defi ne the relations between the criterion of performance and individual constituents of the knowledge base relative to their im-portance.

The knowledge base in the expert system thus con-tains two types of knowledge [5]:1) Model facts: for their defi nition it is necessary to

determine the contents, method of acquisition of knowledge, reference relationship to other model facts and basic characteristics which justify their scientifi c source.

2) Heuristic, i.e. the expert rules of conclusion-drawing and decision-making.

The construction of the knowledge base takes place by means of a formalism, which – taking into account the target criterion functions of the knowledge base – formulates this knowledge base in such a way that it can be used on a computer. The domain dealing with the drawing of knowledge and its conversion into the selected formalism is called “the technology of knowl-edge”.

The formalism of the selected knowledge base must, in general, enable the recording of the knowledge con-cerning the domain of application, i.e. the statements about the properties of objects, systems, models, about the relations between them, about general principles of the domain, but also about the methods for the resolu-tion of the problems associated with the domain.

The formulation of the formalism of the knowledge base must be such that it enables the best possible an-swers to the following questions: 1) On what factors does successful performance de-

pend (i.e. cause-and-effect relationship)? The con-tent by which individual factors can be described is important.

2) By means of what measuring instruments and in what way can performance factors are measured and what is their value from the aspect of scientifi c realization? (i.e. recognizability of the contents of the measuring procedure, the type and objectivity of the method used to measure the respective factor – i.e. intuition, logic deduction, mechanical measure-ment, estimate on the basis of tradition, estimate on the basis of experiences, experiment, inquiry, examination of fi led documents, interview, study of the individual, etc.); coding system in terms of the coding of the structure of knowledge, capacity for numerical or attributive manipulation, determination relative to rank, association with normal distribution, objectivity, reliability, validity (qualitative, functional logical, real-correlational), sensitivity, homogene-ity, invariance (i.e. invariability in time), capacity for transformation and development.


– 26 –

3) What are the interrelations between the factors of the performance model? This concerns the defi ni-tion of the reference relationship between the fac-tors of the performance model both on the level of elementary and on the level of derived model con-stituents and viewed according to the principle of inter- and intra-reference.

4) What is the nature of association between the performance factors and the fi nal performance criterion? It is necessary to establish the form of association that can manifest itself in linear or in non-linear functions. Since the fi nal achievements in sports are always linear, it is necessary to linear-ize all non-linear relations between the factors of the performance model and the fi nal criterion. The procedures for linearization can be mathematical analytical or heuristic.

5) What is the importance of the factors of the model from the aspect of target criterion functions (what is their functional and real stochastic validity)? In this part, we want to model the so-called dimension con-fi guration of the factors of the performance model. First, we do this on the level of elementary factors, and then also on the level of derived model constitu-ents. In carrying it out, we draw conclusions about the relations between the individual factors and the fi nal performance criterion, or the relations between performance factors and all those performance sub-criteria, which are in a formal logical, mathematical functional or a very high stochastic (i.e. correlation association) connection with the fi nal criterion.

6) What is the state or position of an individual on the selected performance factor? Here we determine the so-called positional confi guration of the factors of the performance model, which is shown in the current state of individuals on model variables. The assessment of an individual on a defi ned model variable takes place by means of the so-called nor-malizers, which represent the defi ned quality cat-egories on the basis of which we assess the values of the variables as excellent, very good, good, sat-isfactory or unsatisfactory. From the statistical point of view, we can also determine the relationship ac-cording to the type of the observed values’ variabil-ity into inter-individual and intra-individual positional confi guration.

7) What are the optimal means, methods and loads by means of which we can elevate the positional confi guration of the performance factors separately for each individual?

Tackling of the problems of this kind in the theory of performance requires top-level contents-related and methodological support. The contents-related support is based on the theory of sports, while the metho-dological one is increasingly based on expert systems as a method of artifi cial intelligence. An expert system is a model representing general ideas and possible so-lutions analogous to the topic that is solved, until it is fi lled by relevant knowledge [6].

In the fi eld of management of athletes, the doctrine of management is included in the functional structure of the expert system Sport Expert. The results obtained thus far are, regretfully, still limited to only some fi elds of the athletic performance model. However, despite the narrowness of its contents, they can be useful in many ways to the manager in making management de-cisions. From this point of view, the use of a computer-ized consulting-expert system is of the greatest impor-tance in places where information is transmitted to the decision subsystem. It can be used especially at those points in which information is processed by means of statistical methods in order to serve for appropriate de-cision process in control or management systems. The quality of the expert system is, above all, the function of the scope and quality of its knowledge base [7], which in turn is based on the knowledge acquired within the framework of sports science or theory of performance in sport.

Material and methods

At the Faculty of Sports in Ljubljana, we started in the 1991 with the formulation of an expert system called Sport Expert (SPEX) whose application will enable reaching more effi cient decisions in the management of the various sources involved in performance in sports. The expert system has been developed for more sport disciplines [8, 9, 10]; one of them is ski jumping. In that sport discipline, Slovenian athletes have been very suc-cessful over the last 20 years.

In the fi rst phase, the expert system was developed in the space of chosen morphological and basic mo-toric variables (see variable list in Table 1). In addition to the content-related knowledge, the knowledge base contains also decision rules and normalizers, by means of which new knowledge can be synthesized. The deci-sion rules are proportions of individual potential perfor-mance model dimensions (weights), expressed in per-centages, by which potential prognostic performance is defi ned at each node of the performance decision


– 27 –

Table 1. Structure of the knowledge base of the SPEX expert system, structure of the elementary and derived morphological and motoric variables, ski jumping

Decision tree Name of the variables Unit WeightsNormalisers unsatisfactory – 1, satisfac-tory – 2, good – 5, very good – 8, excel-

lent – 9

PUSPEH Expected success 100.0+-BASMORMOTST Basic Morph.-Motoric status 70.0¦ +-MOTORIKA Motoric status 47.0¦ ¦ +-ENKOGI Energetic component 23.5¦ ¦ ¦ +-TRAEKS Duration of excitation 3.5¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MMRNPK3 Jumping over bench rep. 2.5 0:0, 91,1:2, 99,8:5, 104,7:8, 110,8:9¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MRTDT45 Abdominal crunches rep. 1.0 0:0, 14:2, 16:5, 18:8, 20:9¦ ¦ ¦ +-INTEKS Intensity of excitation 19.0¦ ¦ ¦ +-HIT_MOC Speed strenght 9.0¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MMENSDM Long jump from a standstill cm 2.5 0:0, 274,4:2, 286,8:5, 293,7:8, 302,4:9¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-SMABAV0 High of the vertical jump cm 6.5 0:0, 47,4:2, 53,2:5, 56,5:8, 60,5:9¦ ¦ ¦ +-EKS_MOC Explosive strenght 6.0¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-EKSPL0 Explosiveness of the jump - 2.0 0:0, 75,8:2, 85,2:5, 90,4:8, 96,9:9¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-EKSPLO1 Start explosiveness m/s2 4.0 0:0, 7:2, 8:5, 8,5:8, 9:9¦ ¦ ¦ +-ELAST_MOC Elastic strenght 4.0¦ ¦ ¦ +-MMEN3SM Triple jump m 4.0 0:0, 8,779:2, 9,271:5, 9,544:8, 9,886:9¦ ¦ +-INKOGI Information component 23.5¦ ¦ +-REGSIN Regulation of muscles 8.5¦ ¦ ¦ +-RAVNOTEZ Balance 2.5¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MRSAGIT Sagittal balance sec. 1.5 0:0, 18,91:2, 21,35:5, 24,93:8, 29,4:9¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MRFRONT Frontal balance sec. 1.0 0:0, 4:2, 7:5, 9:8, 12:9¦ ¦ ¦ +-HITROST Motoric speed 2.0¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MHFNTD Tapping - right food rep. 1.0 0:0, 28,4:2, 33,1:5, 35,7:8, 38,9:9¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MHFNTL Tapping - left food rep. 1.0 0:0, 28,4:2, 33,1:5, 35,7:8, 38,9:9¦ ¦ ¦ +GIBLJIVOST Flexibility 4.0¦ ¦ ¦ +-MGGTPK Forward bend cm 0 0:0, 58,9:2, 63,6:5, 66,2:8, 69,4:9¦ ¦ ¦ +-MGGTPKR Forward bend-relative / 2.0 0:0, 220:2, 250:5, 270:8, 300:9¦ ¦ ¦ +-MGGOLS Angle of the ankle deg. 2.0 33:9, 37:8, 40,3:5, 46,1:2, 90:0¦ ¦ +-KOORDIN Coordination 15.0¦ ¦ +-MFE10P Hurdle jumping sec. 7.5 5,1:9, 5,4:8, 5,6:5, 6:2, 15:0¦ ¦ +-MKKROSP Figure-of-eight sec. 2.5 14,8:9, 15,17:8, 15,46:5, 15,99:2, 25:0¦ ¦ +-MKPOLN Polygon backwards sec. 5.0 6,06:9, 6,38:8, 6,64:5, 7,11:2, 20:0¦ +-MORFO Morphological status 23.0¦ +-BAZDIM Basic dimensions 12.0¦ ¦ +-AT¦ ¦ ¦

Body weight kg 8.0 0:0, 45:2, 50,1:5, 54,9:8, 55:9, 62:10, 69:9, 70,1:8, 71,1:5, 80,1:2, 100:0

¦ ¦ +-AV¦ ¦¦ ¦

Body height cm 4.0 100:0, 161,6:2, 165,1:5, 166,8:8, 168,7:9, 175,2:10, 181,7:9, 183,5:8, 190,1:5, 198,5:2, 210:0

¦ +-MORF_IND Morphological indexes 11.0¦ +-INDPLOV Aerodynamic index - 7.0 0:0, 880:2, 930:5, 980:8, 1030:9¦ +-INDODSK Special take-off index - 4.0 0:0, 185:2, 190:5, 195:8, 200:9+-SPMORMOTST Special Morphological-motor

status30.0

+-MMISSK Basic index - 12.0 0:0, 1200:2, 1270:5, 1350:8, 1450:9 +-SMISSKA Special ski jumping index - 18.0 0:0, 232,5:2, 253,6:5, 265,3:8, 280:9


– 28 –

potential model [11]. In formulating the decision rules, the experts have pursued a vision of an ideal top-level ski jumper profi le in the absolute competition category. Normalizers or qualitative marks of the potential suc-cess represent the limits within which value judgments are being defi ned. They are numerically expressed limits of the results in individual dimensions and as-sign concrete performance marks separately to every individually subject (unsatisfactory – 1, satisfactory – 2, good – 5, very good – 8, excellent – 9).

The general mechanism of decision making is based on the logic of the hierarchical linear regression equation in which the fi nal result equals the sum of the weighted summands of the dimensions of lower order in the potential performance model. All calculation op-erations have been made by computer according to the following formula:

Svr = (Snr1 × P1) + (Snr2 × P2) + ….. + (Snrn × Pn)

Svr – normalized value of the variable of higher orderSnr – normalized value of the variables of lower orderP – weight of the variable of lower order (decision

rule).

By means of the above method, we have fi rst cal-culated (for each subject) the potential prognostic value of the performance scores on the lowest level (i.e. elementary tests) of the decision tree in the reduced performance model. Then we performed a successive calculation of the values of variables at higher nodes of the decision tree up to the fi nal highest node, i.e. the general prognostic mark or score of the potential com-petition performance of the respective subject.

Results and discussion

The fi nal structure of the SPEX expert system is shown in Table 1.

The two basic predictors in the regression equa-tion, by means of which the fi nal predicted potential performance of ski jumpers was assessed, were ag-gregated (linearly calculated) variables of the basic morphological-motor status (BASMORMOTST) and special morphological-motor status (SPMORMOTST). The fi rst variable contributed to the formation of the lin-ear expert regression function a relevant share (70.0%). The second variable contributed 30% to the formation of the regression equation. In the space of the variables by means of which the aggregated mark of the sub-

criterion (BASMORMOTST) was calculated, the mark of the basic motor status (MOTORICS) dominated with the value of the coeffi cient of 47.0 %. The total mark of performance of ski jumpers in the space of motor vari-ables (MOTORICS) was calculated as a linear combi-nation of two hypothetical motor components based on the specifi c latent motor mechanisms. The fi rst energy component of movement (ENCOMPMOV) represents the total component of mechanisms which within man’s motorics take care of the control and regulation of ener-gy processes. In addition to this component, there also is presumed (from the aspect of motor behavior) the existence of the information component of movement (INFCOMPMOV), which covers the co-ordinated action of those latent motor mechanisms that take care of the control and regulation of information processes. In ski jumping, it is hypothesized that the both components have an equally important weight in the formation of the total motor regression function. This fact was also con-fi rmed in this research as the both motor components have approximately the same coeffi cients of multiple correlations, as well as the elementary coeffi cients of correlation [12]. The manifestation of the energy com-ponent of movement is (within the RPPM of ski jumpers) subject to the linear summary of the mechanism for the regulation of excitation duration of the neuromuscular system (EXCDUR) and the mechanism of intensity of excitation of the neuromuscular system (INTEXC). For ski jumps, the mechanism that (within the motorics of a ski jumper) takes care of the intensity of energy pro-cesses and their external physical explication in terms of the development of the largest possible force in the shortest possible or in optimal time is highly important [13]. Within the mechanism for the intensity of excitation of the neuromuscular system (INTEXC), all the three phenomenologically defi ned abilities showed balanced and statistically signifi cant correlations with the criterion of performance of ski jumpers. We could say that within the fi eld of strength, the speed strength is the most im-portant for ski jumping; of course, this is also true at a satisfactory degree of the development level of ex-plosive strength and elastic strength. The mechanisms that, within human motorics, take care of the regula-tion of synergists and antagonists (REGSYN) and the structuring of movement in the prescribed parameters of contents, space and time (COORDINATION) were, from the aspect of explained variance of the criterion of performance in ski jumping, approximately the same. Of course, the manifestation of the co-ordination abili-ties depends on the plasticity of the mechanism for the


– 29 –

Table 2. Results of the SPEX expert system of the eight-year monitoring of reduced potential performance model (RPPM) of the best Slovenian Ski-jumper winner in the World Cup in season 1996/97 and 1997/98 (Qualitative marks of RPPM: unsatisfactory – 1, satisfactory – 2, good – 5, very good – 8, excellent – 9)

Age of jumper 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Date of testing 10.11.1993

25.10.1993

28.10.1994

21.10.1995

21.10.1996

27.10.1997

19.10.1998

25.10.1999

20.10.2000

Competition success 6.0 6.5 6.8 7.0 8.0 9.0 9.0 7.8 7.4

PUSPEH 3.1 5.0 5.0 5.6 6.3 7.7 8.3 8.9 7.4+-OSMORMOTST 2.2 6.8 5.0 5.6 5.9 7.2 8.0 8.8 7.1¦ +-MOTORIKA 2.5 2.9 3.5 4.2 4.6 6.7 7.7 8.7 6.3¦ ¦ +-ENKOGI 2.3 3.2 3.5 3.6 4.6 6.8 7.6 8.3 6.0¦ ¦ ¦ +-TRAEKS 6.3 8.4 9.1 7.4 8.2 9.9 9.8 10.0 10.0¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MMRNPK3 6.3 8.5 9.5 9.9 10.3 10.3 10,0 10.0 10.0¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MMRTDT45 8.0 8.0 1.7 3.5 9.0 6.5 9.0 9.0¦ ¦ ¦ +-INTEKS 1.2 1.8 2.0 2.6 3.6 6.0 7.0 7.8 4.8¦ ¦ ¦ +-HIT_MOC 1.6 1.8 1.8 2.6 4.2 8.2 8.7 9.1 6.3¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MMENSDM 1.6 1.6 1.8 1.9 2.6 7.3 8.4 8.5 3.4¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-SMABAV0 1.6 1.9 1.9 2.8 4.9 8.6 8.9 9.4 7.5¦ ¦ ¦ +-EKS_MOC 0.3 2.4 3.1 3.2 3.1 5.3 5.4 2.5¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-EKSPL0 4.0 4.3 4.9 8.2 8.2 8.2 4.6¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-EKSPLO1 0.3 1.9 2.8 2.8 1.8 4.5 4.7 1.9¦ ¦ ¦ +-ELAST_MOC 1.5 1.8 1.9 2.4 4.0 4.6 7.5 3.8¦ ¦ ¦ +-MMEN3SM 1.5 1.8 1.9 2.4 4.0 4.6 7.5 3.8¦ ¦ +-INKOGI 2.6 3.5 3.5 4.8 4.7 6.6 7.9 9.0 6.7¦ ¦ +-REGSIN 3.7 5.5 5.7 4.7 4.5 5.9 7.5 7.7 7.1¦ ¦ ¦ +-RAVNOTEZ 0.9 1.2 4.2 2.1 1.9 5.5 7.7 8.2 7.5¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MRSAGIT 0.4 1.2 0.6 1.4 1.5 7.0 9.1 9.1 9.1¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MRFRONT 2.0 12.5 3.6 2.7 2.1 4.5 6.2 3.7¦ ¦ ¦ +-HITROST 2.1 2.7 3.3 4.8 3.3 8.6 8.7 8.9¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MHFNTD 2.4 3.0 3.7 6.0 3.7 8.4 8.4 8.7¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +-MHFNTL 1.9 2.4 3.0 3.7 3.0 8.7 9.0 9.0¦ ¦ ¦ +-GIBLJIVOST 7.1 9.8 8.0 7.8 6.9 7.2 7.0 6.8 6.1¦ ¦ ¦ +-MGGTPK 2.7 2.0 4.0 8.2 8.6 8.6 8.6 8.6 8.2¦ ¦ ¦ +-MGGTPKR 8.2 8.2 8.5 8.3 8.1 7.3¦ ¦ ¦ +-MGGOLS 7.1 9.8 8.0 6.2 1.9 2.1 1.9 1.9 1.9¦ ¦ +-KOORDIN 1.9 1.8 2.2 4.9 4.9 7.1 8.1 9.9 6.4¦ ¦ +-MFE10P 1.9 1.7 1.9 1.9 3.5 5.0 8.0 8.7 4.2¦ ¦ +-MKKROSP 1.5 2.0 3.6 8.2 1.9 8.2 3.1 8.7 2.0¦ ¦ +-MKPOLN 2.1 1.9 1.9 7.8 9.2 9.8 10,0 10,0 10,0¦ +-MORFO 1.7 2.1 8.3 8.5 8.6 8.0 8.7 9.0 8.9¦ +-BAZDIM 1.7 2.1 7.7 9.6 9.6 9.6 9.6 9.5 9.4¦ ¦ +-AT 1.7 2.3 6.3 9.4 9.8 9.9 10.0 9.8 9.7¦ ¦ +-AV 1.7 1.9 9.1 9.9 9.4 9.3 9.1 9.1 9.1¦ +-MORF_IND 8.9 7.5 7.5 6.5 7.9 8.6 8.5¦ +-INDPLOV 9.1 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.8 8.7 8.3¦ +-INDODSK 8.6 5.6 5.6 2.6 6.2 8.4 8.8+-SPMORMOTST 5.0 0.9 4.8 5.7 7.3 8.8 9.0 9.1 7.9 +-MMISSK 9.6 0.1 8.3 8.2 8.2 8.6 8.8 8.6 7.5 +-SMISSKA 1.9 1.4 2.5 4.1 6.6 8.9 9.1 9.5 8.1


– 30 –

regulation of the synergistic and antagonistic muscle groups. Within the mechanism for the regulation of syn-ergists and antagonists there occurred, at the phenom-enological level, a domination of the ability of balance in comparison with the ability of speed of alternative movements of the lower extremities and the ability of fl exibility. This is also so with the ability of co-ordination of movement, which was (for the requirements of this research) expressed by three variables indicating three typical forms of co-ordination. For all the three forms, the requirement for the fastest possible execution of motor tasks that are complex in some way (as to con-tents or spatially) it is characteristic.

The highest degree of correlation with the criterion of performance of ski jumpers was seen in the variable MFE10P. This is a variable where the subject must jump over 10 obstacles at a prescribed height in the shortest possible time. The task requires that the subject has highly developed abilities for rhythmic mastering of movement; such movement is made diffi cult by certain hindrances or obstacles.

Among the morphological variables under which we understand the transformed values of the predicted po-tential performance of ski jumpers, the highest weights was found in body weight; this completely confi rms with the fi ndings of some studies [14]. The contribution of body weight to the formation of the higher weight at the node (BASICDIMENSIONS) was signifi cant and, in comparison to the body height, dominant. In the analy-sis of performance of ski jumpers, we should not ne-glect the importance of special morphological indexes, calculated on the basis of the anticipated functional re-lations to the physical environment in which ski jumps are realized. The morphological index of the take off of ski jumpers points to a relative relationship between the body weight and leg length. It is assumed that the ski jumpers with a higher relative leg length in comparison with body height have poorer predispositions for suc-cessful take off and transition into fl ight [15].

As an example of longitudinal monitoring of the de-velopment of potential performance from the aspect of morphological and motor variables, we have selected the results of the winner in the World Cup in ski jumping for the 1996/97 and 1997/98 seasons (Table 2).

From the aspect of reduced potential performance model (RPPM), the best mark (8.9) was achieved by the

winner of World Cup in ski jumping in 1999 when he was 20 years old. In that season, the best Slovenian ski jumper won second place at the World Cup. After this season, his average competition performance declined. For his high results in the World Cup, the jumper needed about 10 years of preparation. His po-tential performance at age 13 in 1992 was not so high. Then his marks of potential performance were rising rapidly. In the 1995/96 season, he won fi rst place in World Cup competition, when the mark of his poten-tial performance was only 6.3. In that season, the mark of RPPM attained by the young Slovenian ski jumper was good, which means that he had already surpassed those minimal limits of satisfactory poten-tial capacity, which allowed him to achieve his fi rst two wins in the World Cup [16]. His morphological profi le in the best two competition seasons (1996/97 and 1997/98) was excellent, especially the aerody-namic index of fl ight. In the basic motor space, this high level jumper has a slightly more developed infor-mation component of movement; however, both the information component and the energy component of movement have been scored as good. In these two seasons, the competitor further improved his poten-tial performance, which enabled him, at full utilization of his competitive talent, to achieve two overall wins in the World Cup.

Conclusion

The results thus confi rm the importance of monitor-ing the potential competitive performance of athletes with the help of the expert system. The results of ex-pert systems are only an aid that can enable better management of people in terms of elevation of per-formance on the selected standards and criteria. In this way, the decisions will be based on more scientifi c grounds; the value of information will be higher, and the system itself will be permanently oriented towards the growth of the quality of the potential competition performance of athletes. Expert system should have the possibility of adding and including a new piece of knowledge into the existing system, i.e. the ability to improve the system permanently. The system should be able to explain the causes from which certain deci-sions followed.


– 31 –

[1] Allaire Y, Firsirotu ME: Theories of Organizational Culture. Organization Studies, 1985.

[2] Chelladurai P: Managing organizations for sport and physical activity: a systems perspective. USA, Holcomb Hathaway Publishers, 2001.

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[4] Chelladurai P: Human resource management in sport and recreation. USA, Human Kinetics, 1999.

[5] Mallach EG: Understanding Decision Support Systems and Expert Systems. Irwin INC, 1994.

[6] Blahuš P, Hruby J, Kvapil J, Paichl J: Systems Theory Approach to Using Statistics in Social Sciences – with Applications to Physical Education. Prague, Charles University, 1988.

[7] Harmon P, King D: Expert Systems; in: J. Wiley & Sons (eds): Preliminary Report on Study and Research on Fifth Generation Computers 1997–1980. Japan, Information Processing Development Center, 1985.

[8] Filipčič A: Potential and competitive successfulness of young tennis players. Kinesiology, 1999; 31(2); 19–30.

[9] Jošt B: Evaluation of the Model of Success in different sports on the basis of Expert modeling. Proceedings book of 6th ICHPER-Europe Congress. Prague, 1992: 228–233.

[10] Pustovrh J, Černohorski B, Jošt B: Monitoring of cross-country skiers by means of an expert model of

potential performance. Col. Antropol., 2006; 30(4): 837–844.

[11] Ulaga M, Čoh M, Jošt B: Validity of the dimensional con-fi guration of the reduced potential performance model in ski jumping. Kinesiology, 2006; 38(2): 185–192.

[12] Jošt B, Tušak M: The structure of reduced potential perfor-mance model in ski jumping. Journal of Human Kinetics, 2002; 8: 3–15.

[13] Virmavirta M, Komi PV: Take-off analysis of a champion ski jumper. Coaching and Sport Science Journal, 1994; 1(5): 23–27.

[14] Jošt B, Pustovrh J, Dolenec M: Correlation of the Se-lected Morphological Variables with the Performance of the Best Ski Jumpers in the World; in: The proceedings of III International Symposium Sport of The Young. Bled – Slovenia, 1998: 424–428.

[15] Pustovrh J, Jošt B, Čoh M: Correlation between the po-tential morphologic – motor index of ski-jumpers and their competitive successfulness; in: Sanders RH, Gibson BJ (eds.): Scientifi c proceedings – XVII international sympo-sium of biomechanics in sports. Edith Cowan University, School of Biomedical and Sports Science, Perth 1999: 405–408.

[16] Jošt B, Pustovrh J, Ulaga M: The follow-up of the de-velopment of a competitive and potentially successful performance of a top sportsman with the aid of the “Sport expert” system. Kinesiology, 1998; 30(2): 17–22.


– 33 –

THE INFLUENCE OF PLYOMETRICS TRAINING ON THE MAXIMAL POWER OF THE LOWER LIMBS

IN BASKETBALL PLAYERS AGED 16–18

WPŁYW TRENINGU PLAJOMETRYCZNEGO NA POPRAWĘ PO ZIOMU SIŁY EKSPLOZYWNEJ KOŃCZYN DOLNYCH

U KOSZYKARZY W WIEKU 16–18 LAT

Ryszard Litkowycz *, Kajetan Słomka **, Monika Grygorowicz ***, Henryk Król****

*****Dr, Chair of Team Sports, the Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education in Katowice*****Dr, Department of Human Motor Behavior, the Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education in Katowice*****Dr, Department of Physiotherapy, the Stanisław Staszic State School of Higher Vocational Education in Piła *****Dr, habil., Department of Human Motor Behavior, the Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education in Katowice

Key words: basketball, training, playometricsSłowa kluczowe: koszykówka, trening, plajometryka

Aim of the work. The study was aimed at assessing the influence of plyometric training on explosive strength development dynamics in running and jumping among basketball players, since basketball is a sport discipline dominated by strength and speed abilities. The combination of these two constitutes explosive strength enables the athletes of various sport disciplines to perform at the highest level of their technical and tactical skills.

Material and methods. Thirty-six basketball players aged 16–18 participated in the study. They were divided into experimental (E) and control (K) group. Running speed (5 m, 15m, 20m and 30m distance), speed endu-rance (10 × 30 m run), explosive strength of trunk and legs (recorded on a dynamometric platform) as well as strength endurance of leg flexors and extensors in isokinetic conditions were measured at the beginning and at the end of the experiment.

Results. The training regimen did not result in any significant changes in the examined motor abilities of basketball players in the control group. The introduction of plyometric training in the experimental group resulted in a statistically significant strength torque increase in knee flexors and extensors of both joints (measured at 60º/s, 120º/s, and 240º/s angular velocity). Moreover, changes were observed in the conventional ratio of hamstrings and quadriceps muscles of the right extremity. Specific training activities positively influenced the speed endurance assessed with the use of a shuffle run (10 × 30 m). There were no significant differences in the level of running speed and explosive strength of legs.

Cel pracy. Celem pracy było określenie dynamiki zmian siły eksplozywnej przejawiającej się w biegach i sko-kach u koszykarzy w wieku 16–18 lat pod wpływem treningu plajometrycznego. Koszykówka należy bowiem do tych dyscyplin sportowych, w których dominującą rolę odgrywa zdolność motoryczna o charakterze siłowo-szyb-kościowym, a w konsekwencji – siła eksplozywna. Dzięki niej nie tylko koszykarze, ale także przedstawiciele innych dyscyplin sportowych mogą pokazać pełnię swoich umiejętności techniczno-taktycznych.

Materiał i metody. Badaniom poddano 36 koszykarzy w wieku 16–18 lat, podzielonych na grupę ekspery-mentalną i kontrolną. Przed eksperymentem oraz po jego zakończeniu dokonano pomiarów szybkości biegowej (na dystansach 5, 15, 20 i 30 m), wytrzymałości szybkościowej (bieg 10 × 30 m), siły dynamicznej kończyn dolnych



Ryszard Litkowycz, Kajetan Słomka, Monika Grygorowicz, Henryk Król

– 34 –

i tułowia (platforma dynamometryczna), siły dynamicznej oraz wytrzymałości siłowej prostowników i zginaczy stawu kolanowego w warunkach izokinetycznych.

Wyniki i wnioski. Trening sportowy nie wywołał istotnych zmian u koszykarzy z grupy kontrolnej w zakresie badanych zdolności motorycznych. Wprowadzenie ćwiczeń plajometrycznych do treningu koszykarzy z grupy eksperymentalnej w większości przypadków doprowadziło do istotnego statystycznie wzrostu wartości momentu siły zginaczy i prostowników stawu kolanowego kończyny dolnej prawej i lewej (60º/s, 120º/s, 240º/s). Ponadto stwierdzono zmiany w proporcjach wartości momentów sił zginaczy i prostowników stawu kolanowego kończyny dolnej prawej. Specyficzne zajęcia treningowe wpłynęły na istotną poprawę wytrzymałości szybkościowej ocenianej biegiem wahadłowym 10 × 30 m. Nie stwierdzono różnic, bądź też występowały sporadycznie w poziomie szybkości biegowej (5, 15, 20 i 30 m) oraz mocy kończyn dolnych (platforma dynamometryczna).

Introduction

Practical experience and various test results prove that speed-strength abilities are one of important motor abilities for an athlete, particularly for a basketball player [1–8]. Modern sport training practice attributes particular importance to strength developing exercises (dynamic, explosive). Apart from the classic methods of shaping muscle dynamics, plyometrics is an important form of sport performance. The term “plyometrics” comes from the Greek words “plio” and “metric”, meaning “more” and “measure”, respectively. The fi rst reports about the meth-ods and concept of plyometric exercises were provided by the coaches from the former USSR, as described by Donald and Chu [4] and Mikołajec and Rzepka [8].

Explosive force is based on a phenomenon known in the literature as the “stretch refl ex”, “muscle spindle re-fl ex” or “myotatic refl ex”. Rapid muscle elongation due to a load (eccentric or landing phase) infl uences the stretching of fi bers responsible for generating energy necessary for a contraction, which causes the activa-tion of muscle spindles. Muscle spindle stimulation leads to the stimulation of the spinal cord, and next,

to a very intensive muscle contraction – the concen-tric (overcoming) phase [4, 8–11]. The most important discovery of the plyometric training was that it not only develops the muscle tissue but above all, it improves the coordination of the whole neuromuscular system.

Previous research results [6, 5, 10, 12–22] on plyo-metric training and relation between strength and speed abilities inspire to further studies. The aim of our experi-ment was to assess the infl uence of plyometric training on the explosive strength change dynamics, evident in running, jumping and in muscle torque values mea-sured in isokinetic conditions.


Basketball players from the team AZS Katowice who participated in youth basketball league in two age groups: older juniors (19–20 years old) and juniors (17–18 years old) took part in the study. The players were divided into two groups (experimental and control one) according to their training skills and age; more ex-perienced players, able to handle larger training loads, were assigned to the experimental group (Fig. 1). The

1,251,271,291,311,33

1,351,371,391,41

1,431,45

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Run num ber

Time[s]

E I

E I I

K I

K II

Fig. 1. Comparison of mean time in 5m run for the experimental (E) and control (K) group before (I) and after the experiment (II)

The influence of plyometrics training on the maximal power of the lower limbs in basketball players aged 16–18

– 35 –

experiment lasted from January 30 2006 to June 2 2006, and it was divided into preparation – introduc-tion phase (8 weeks) and experiment proper phase (I and II, 8 weeks). The aim of the preparation phase, during which the subjects trained twice a week (us-ing their own bodyweight, mats, and exercises with a partner) was to develop athletic prowess and prac-tice the correct take-off technique in jump exercises. The experiment proper I (4 weeks) aimed at building explosive leg strength through the application of se-lected plyometric exercises. In the experiment proper II (4 weeks) training loads were increased on the basis of individual abilities of the players. To achieve that, bas-ketballs as well as 1 kg and 4 kg medicine balls were used in plyometric training. The number of jumps was also increased, but the structure of particular training units did not change. The microcycle structure details in the experiment proper phase I and II are presented in Table 2.

Motor ability level was assessed prior to (on 25 March 2006) and after the experiment completion (on 24 June 2006), with the following research tools:1. Laser diode system LDM 300C-Sport, used to as-

sess: – running speed at 5m, 15m, 20m and 30m– speed endurance in 10 × 30m run.

2. KISTLER dynamometer platform with MVJ [23] software, used to assess:– explosive leg and trunk strength measured by

vertical jump with no arm swing.3. EN-Knee isokinetic dynamometer (Enraf Nonius,

Holland) used to estimate the values of:– dynamic strength of knee fl exors and exten-

sors at 60º/s angular velocity (5 repetitions) and 120º/s angular velocity (10 repetitions) as well as the conventional muscle torque ratio of knee fl exors and extensors,

– strength endurance of knee fl exors and exten-sors at 240º/s angular velocity (15 repetitions) as well as the conventional muscle torque ratio of knee fl exors and extensors.

The dynamometer had been used in previous re-search [24], and the evaluation of the muscle dynamic potential in isokinetic conditions (including warm-up, stabilization, rest period) was performed according to methodology described by Grygorowicz [25].

Descriptive statistics was used in data analysis. It was found out that the empirical data distribution was close to normal, which allowed for the analysis of vari-ance (ANOVA) with repeated measures. Since the condition of data globosity was not fulfi lled, the multi-factor analysis was used. To assess the signifi cance between respective test differences post hoc Tukeys’ test was done. To compare related pairs from test I and II, the Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Ranks test was used. Statistical signifi cance was set at p < 0.05. Statistica 5.0 software was used for statistical analysis.

Results and discussion

The study confi rmed the effectiveness of the specifi c plyometric training. Subjects from the experimental group obtained signifi cant improvement in the majority of analyzed variables. In the control group, comparing the results before and after the experiment, differences appeared in motor abilities levels; however, they were not statistically signifi cant (p > 0.05) (Table 3–12, Fig. 1, 2).

Elevating the center of body mass during a verti-cal jump on spot with no arm swing may be the basis for an estimate of leg and trunk strength-speed ability level in basketball players [26]. The obtained data did not show any signifi cant difference in explosive leg and trunk strength measured on a dynamometer platform (Table 3).

The analysis of strength abilities test results per-formed before and after the experiment in isokinetic conditions showed an improvement of strength level in the experiment group, and in the majority of players the difference was statistically signifi cant (Table 4–8). The most noticeable is the signifi cant difference in the level of knee fl exor strength at all tested angular veloci-

Table 1. Material

Group Category Number of players

Age [years] Training advancement

[years]x ± S min – max

Experimental (E) Juniors 18 16,8 ± 1,2 15,3 – 18,3 6,2

Control (K) Juniors 18 15,8 ± 0,8 14,5 – 16,4 4,7


– 36 –

Tabl

e 2.

Mic

rocy

cle

stru

ctur

e

Day

of t

he

wee

kTr

aini

ng m

etho

dsW

arm

up

Rest

per

iod

Load

(num

ber o

f jum

ps)

Load

tota

l(n

o of

jum

ps)

Phas

e I

Phas

e II

Phas

e I

Phas

e II

1–

“cor

e st

abili

ty”

o

n un

stab

le g

roun

d (m

ats)

,–

“bou

ndin

g”

Cons

tant

run

10-1

5min

4 tim

es lo

nger

than

ex

erci

se

5 tim

es lo

nger

than

ex

erci

se12

022

010

75

2–

“dep

th ju

mps

” (w

ith th

e use

of 3

vault

ing

box

es an

d hur

dles)

Stre

ngth

exe

rcis

es w

ith m

edic

ine

balls

(1kg

) 15m

in1

min

afte

r eac

h 3

jum

ps2

min

afte

r eac

h 3

jum

ps60

6035

3

3Da

y of

fDa

y of

fDa

y of

fDa

y of

f0

00

4

– “m

ultipl

e jum

ps”

– “s

tand

ing ju

mps

”–

“jum

ps o

n sp

ot”

(b

ench

es, l

ines

, “he

xago

n”)

Tech

nica

l exe

rcise

s w

ith b

alls

15m

in4

times

long

er th

an

exer

cise

5

times

long

er th

an

exer

cise

140

200

1182

5–

“dep

th ju

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– 37 –

ties, both in left and right extremity (Table 4, 5). Identical number of jumps performed by both lower extremities in the proper phase of the experiment resulted in a greater strength increase in the right knee fl exor. The strength level of knee extensor increased as well, however not at all tested velocities; no signifi cant difference was record-ed in the dynamic strength of the lower right extremity (tested at 60º/s and 120º/s angular velocity) or left ex-tremity (tested at 60º/s angular velocity) (Table 6, 7).

Before the experiment, at 60º/s and 120º/s angular velocity, the strength level of right knee extensor in bas-ketball players was on a similar level to the strength level of left knee extensor; only the level of strength endurance of left knee extensor was slightly higher than that of the right knee extensor. It seems that the right lower extrem-

ity is more often used to perform the long step in layup (opposing and take-off phase) while the left lower ex-tremity makes a short dynamic step (take-off phase). As a result of the plyometric training there was a change in strength endurance (tested at 240º/s angular velocity) of knee extensors in both lower extremities. Changes in dynamic strength levels were observed only in left lower extremity at 120º/s angular velocity.

One may ask why before and after the experiment there were no signifi cant differences in the level of dy-namic strength of right and left lower extremity extensors (at 60º/s and 120º/s, and 60º/s angular velocity, respec-tively). Perhaps motor activities in the regular basketball training resulted in the development of high strength level of knee extensors, and the experiment was not

Fig. 2. Comparison of mean time in 30m run for the experimental (E) and control (K) group before (I) and after the experiment (II)

4 ,6

4 ,7

4 ,8

4 ,9

5

5 ,1

5 ,2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Run number

Time[s]

E I

E II

K I

K II

Table 3. Descriptive statistics and significance level of the differences in vertical jump [cm]

Test N x ± S min – max Sk Ku T p

I 18 40,2 ± 4,86 30,9 – 52,1 0,494 1,0500,235 0,817

II 18 40,0 ± 4,30 32,3 – 47,7 –0,350 –0,525

I 18 40,2 ± 4,86 30,9 – 52,1 0,494 1,0500,992 0,335

III* 18 39,7 ± 4,44 32,4 – 47,4 –0,152 –1,122

II 18 40,0 ± 4,30 32,3 – 47,7 –0,350 –0,5251,022 0,321

III* 18 39,7 ± 4,44 32,4 – 47,4 –0,152 –1,122

* Having observed no statistically significant changes in the level of explosive leg and trunk strength, the researchers decided to carry out test III believing that a longer rest period will allow the subjects to show the real level of the tested ability.


– 38 –

a suffi cient stimulus to bring about the intended effects. Statistically signifi cant differences between the values of muscle torque of fl exors (6 cases) and extensors (3 cas-es) may suggest that in basketball training insuffi cient at-tention was devoted to the muscles responsible for knee fl exion, which confi rms their susceptibility to the stimulus of the plyometric training (Table 4–7).

According to Wilkerson et al. [11] the value of con-ventional knee fl exors/extensors ratio should be equal to 2:3. However, varied values of this ratio (Hamstring/Quadriceps) have been reported in scientifi c research, depending on the tested velocity, the subject’s position, the test muscle group [27, 28]. Nevertheless, many authors accept 0.6 as the normative value of the knee conventional ratio at 60°/s angular velocity; it increases to 0.8 at higher velocities of the isokinetic assessment [29–31].

It should be noted that before the experiment most of the subjects had a correct conventional ratio of knee

extensor and fl exor muscles (Hcon/Qcon) (Table 8), and the statistically signifi cant changes caused by the plyometric training occurred only in the lower right extremity. It might be said that the plyometric training to a greater extent affected the weaker muscle group, that is hamstrings (semimembranosus muscle, semi-tendinosus muscle, biceps femoris muscle), causing compensation changes. Changes leading towards the proper muscle ratio were particularly visible in the lower extremity, which – as it was already mentioned above – performs particular work during training and game. After the experiment the results of the described ratio of right lower extremity exceeded the normative values at 240º/s angular velocity, mostly due to the large increase of the fl exors’ strength endurance level. It should be remembered that before the experiment the right lower extremity demonstrated correct values of conventional knee fl exors/extensors ratio (60°/s – 0. 63, 120°/s – 0.76, 240°/s – 0.86). After the experiment

Table 4. Descriptive statistics and significance level of the differences for the right lower extremity flexor muscles [Nm]

Test Angular velocity N x ± S min – max Sk Ku T p

I 60 deg/s18

171,8 ± 49,53 93,8 – 303,0 1,304 2,631–4,610 0,000

II 60 deg/s 197,3 ± 55,06 125,0 – 322,0 1,298 1,059

I 120 deg/s18

158,8 ± 36,82 79,4 – 243,0 0,533 2,205–3,984 0,001

II 120 deg/s 177,6 ± 44,03 120,0 – 279,0 1,304 1,270

I 240 deg/s18

127,1 ± 23,97 90,7 – 175,0 0,841 0,045–5,698 0,000

II 240 deg/s 145,2 ± 28,79 99,6 – 204,0 0,631 –0,009

Table 5. Descriptive statistics and significance level of the differences for the left lower extremity flexor muscles [Nm]

Angular velocity N x ± S min – max Sk Ku T p

60 deg/s18

172,57 ± 43,39 129,0 – 272,0 1,516 1,700–4,151 0,000

60 deg/s 187,50 ± 43,52 139,0 – 290,0 1,288 1,039

120 deg/s18

157,25 ± 30,21 114,0 – 218,0 0,855 0,366–2,964 0,009

120 deg/s 169,00 ± 32,93 136,0 – 234,0 1,133 0,084

240 deg/s18

123,09 ± 20,13 93,5 – 157,0 0,108 –0,983–2,971 0,009

240 deg/s 134,00 ± 16,12 107,0 – 161,0 0,168 –0,945


– 39 –

this ratio was incorrect and at 240º/s angular velocity it exceeded normative data (0.98) (Table 8).

Out of 40 parameters describing speed and speed endurance, its derivative, statistically signifi cant changes were observed in the values before and after the experi-ment in 19 cases in the experiment group; no such chang-es were recorded in the control group (Table 9–12, Figure 1 and 2). It should also be noted that what improved was endurance abilities, not speed abilities, as could be sug-gested by the type of the training experiment. All signifi -cant differences in the running test were only noticed in the 6th or 7th repetition (when the subjects had already run 5 × 30m). The differences were not recorded in any of the fi rst runs at 5 m, 10 m, 20 m or 30 m distance, which confi rms the above mentioned observation on the endurance type of changes in motor abilities of basket-ball players. According to Wachowski et al. [13] there was no correlation between the running speed and the power and strength tests. The obtained results show that there is a small relation (too many components) between running speed and strength and power. Therefore, it should not be assumed that a plyometric training focused on power development will result in better results in running tests.

Moreover, the authors claim that in optimal conditions for strength and power development, running speed level de-pends on the running technique (the length and frequency of step).

Changes in motor abilities in the experiment group resulted from the plyometric training structure, as well as from the subjects susceptibility to training impulses (sensitive periods). Thus the research question should be considered from two perspectives; that is, from the edu-cational and ontogenetic perspective.

Literature analysis [5, 13, 14, 17, 32–36] allows for a conclusion that the slowest is the annual speed in-crease (5%) which grows best up to age 16. Faster devel-opment can be observed in the case of jumping abilities (7%) and power (6%), and the sensitive period for these abilities occurs at age 13–15.

The development of jumping abilities is mainly relat-ed to the training of the capability of fast and economic use of muscle strength (neuromuscular coordination) of lower extremities. It depends, among others, on the elastic elements acting within the ankle joint. It can thus be said that the experiment was too short to cause any signifi cant changes in the level of relative strength,

Table 6. Descriptive statistics and significance level of the differences for the left lower extremity extensor muscles [Nm]


I 60 deg/s18

259,56 ± 62,41 162,0 – 416,0 1,001 1,650–1,205 0,246

II 60 deg/s 267,06 ± 60,41 178,0 – 411,0 0,948 1,034

I 120 deg/s18

211,25 ± 39,50 160,0 – 317,0 1,499 2,526–2,674 0,017

II 120 deg/s 223,44 ± 43,87 172,0 – 319,0 0,937 0,341

I 240 deg/s18

150,56 ± 26,45 105,0 – 187,0 –0,080 –1,140–3,560 0,002

II 240 deg/s 164,94 ± 23,54 126,0 – 218,0 0,518 0,495

Table 7. Descriptive statistics and significance level of the differences for the right lower extremity extensor muscles [Nm]


I 60 deg/s18

261,56 ± 54,69 187,0 – 400,0 1,105 1,483–0,978 0,343

II 60 deg/s 268,81 ± 64,72 181,0 – 412,0 0,948 0,224

I 120 deg/s18

209,81 ± 49,46 145,0 – 333,0 1,324 1,312–1,593 0,131

II 120 deg/s 218,37 ± 47,48 154,0 – 327,0 0,971 0,589

I 240 deg/s18

141,81 ± 26,28 101,0 – 202,0 0,705 0,363–2,193 0,044

II 240 deg/s 152,69 ± 23,64 116,0 – 194,0 0,434 –0,700


– 40 –

responsible for the elevation of the body mass center during a vertical jump on a platform. It also seems that boys aged 11–14 are more capable of perfecting their strength-speed abilities [17].

As a result of the exercises the greatest annual changes can be observed in endurance and absolute power training (more than 20%) [33, 17]. It can be ex-pected that the time of the experiment and training load allowed only for the development of endurance chang-es in running tests (Table 9–12, Figure 1 and 2). Such interpretation of the results is confi rmed by the high level of running endurance and strength endurance of knee fl exors and extensors. Signifi cant changes in the muscle torque values in tests performed on the isoki-netic dynamometer at 240º/s angular velocity charac-terize changes in strength endurance, while the value of muscle torque at 60º/s angular velocity suggests changes of dynamic strength.

Basketball players from the experiment group per-formed more than 3000 jumps during the proper phase of the experiment (I and II). That is a lot, taking into con-sideration the time span of the experiment: eight weeks (Table 2). One may ask whether three days of rest were enough for four days of plyometric training. To com-

pare with other research, in a study by Kubaszczyk and Litkowycz [10] basketball players were subject to a plyo-metric training twice a week for fi ve months, performing approximately 2500 jumps. As a result, there were sig-nifi cant changes in the dynamic strength level measured by a vertical jump, long jump from a spot and triple jump. It should be noted that in spite of the fact that the train-ing load was divided into fi ve months, during the second measurement (out of three), in the middle of the experi-ment, the authors recorded a regress of results. What occurred was a common phenomenon observed in all tests: a decrease in the level of strength-speed abilities value, after which a signifi cant improvement occurred, with values higher than those before the experiment.

After the fatigue accumulation effect, supercompen-sation occurred. It can thus be said that prolonging the experiment at the expense of one training unit would allow for achieving satisfactory results not only in the level of endurance abilities but, above all, of speed abili-ties. Another reason for signifi cant differences in the level of dynamic strength of lower extremities in basket-ball players tested by Kubaszczyk and Litkowycz [10] is the age of subjects (16 years) and thus their greater susceptibility to strength-speed training impulse.

Table 8. Descriptive statistics and significance level of the differences for conventional knee flexors/extensors ratio

Angular velocity Conventional index x ± S min – max Sk Ku T p

Left lower extremity

60 I 0,68 0,68 ± 0,10 0,50 – 0,91 0,495 0,50747,5 0,289

60 II 0,70 0,70 ± 0,07 0,60 – 0,84 0,355 –0,532

120 I 0,76 0,76 ± 0,08 0,59 – 0,9 –0,161 –0,34567,5 0,979

120 II 0,76 0,76 ± 0,08 0,62 – 0,92 0,195 –0,670

240 I 0,86 0,86 ± 0,16 0,61 – 1,25 0,791 0,99462,0 0,756

240 II 0,87 0,87 ± 0,13 0,64 – 1,14 0,254 0,040

Right lower extremity

60 I 0,63 0,63 ± 0,07 0,48 – 0,74 –0,772 0,1319,0 0,006

60 II 0,70 0,70 ± 0,10 0,51 – 0,94 0,262 0,755

120 I 0,76 0,76 ± 0,09 0,55 – 0,89 –0,699 0,65025,0 0,084

120 II 0,81 0,81 ± 0,11 0,66 – 1,05 0,696 –0,142

240 I 0,86 0,86 ± 0,21 0,21 – 1,21 –1,867 6,06827,5 0,036

240 II 0,98 0,98 ± 0,17 0,61 – 1,19 –0,733 –0,004


– 41 –

Table 9. Descriptive statistics and significance level of the differences for 5m run [s]

Test Run N x ± S min – max Sk Ku T p

I 1 188 1,34 ± 0,07 1,18 – 1,48 –0,404 0,57211,5 0,055

II 1 18 1,27 ± 0,04 1,20 – 1,35 0,112 0,014

I 2 18 1,35 ± 0,10 1,17 – 1,55 –0,029 –0,41131,5 0,893

II 2 18 1,30 ± 0,05 1,21 – 1,38 –0,295 –0,296

I 3 18 1,35 ± 0,09 1,16 – 1,51 –0,282 –0,52325,0 0,798

II 3 18 1,30 ± 0,05 1,24 – 1,40 1,142 0,331

I 4 18 1,37 ± 0,08 1,24 – 1,49 0,113 –1,45611,5 0,055

II 4 18 1,30 ± 0,05 1,22 – 1,40 –0,019 –0,482

I 5 18 1,38 ± 0,10 1,19 – 1,58 –0,245 –0,37127,0 0,593

II 5 18 1,33 ± 0,04 1,23 – 1,39 –0,927 0,835

I 6 18 1,39 ± 0,07 1,29 – 1,58 1,091 1,50711,5 0,055

II 6 18 1,31 ± 0,07 1,15 – 1,38 –1,389 2,091

I 7 18 1,39 ± 0,07 1,25 – 1,57 0,428 0,9882,0 0,005

II 7 18 1,31 ± 0,04 1,27 – 1,39 1,318 0,924

I 8 18 1,41 ± 0,08 1,28 – 1,63 0,732 1,62812,5 0,068

II 8 18 1,32 ± 0,02 1,30 – 1,36 0,360 –1,474

I 9 18 1,42 ± 0,08 1,23 – 1,55 –0,698 1,0476,5 0,018

II 9 18 1,32 ± 0,05 1,26 – 1,41 0,421 –0,507

I 10 18 1,42 ± 0,08 1,32 – 1,60 0,772 –0,0815,0 0,021

II 10 18 1,31 ± 0,06 1,25 – 1,42 1,066 0,014

Cossor et al. [22] described the effect of 20 weeks of plyometric training. During the study subjects (12–16 year old swimmers) performed a total of 2700 jumps. After the experiment there were no signifi cant changes in the values of explosive leg strength in the young swimmers. The authors suggest two most probable rea-sons for such a situation: fi rst, physical load imposed by the plyometric training turned out to be too low, as the authors used load recommended for training children. Out of the two components of training load, the body of a young athlete better tolerates volume better than intensity. The second reason is the young swimmers’ growth process.

Authors [12, 15, 18–21, 37] of some research pa-pers have not observed any signifi cant increase of sport achievements after applying the plyometric train-

ing, which was most probably due to a too short plyo-metric program. Burr and Young [20] believe that the plyometric training should be carried out for at least 18 weeks for the positive effects to appear. High intensity exercises which affect the nervous system should only be applied in individuals where the growth process is completed. Particular plyometric exercises should be performed with maximum strength (when the subject is not fatigued), and rest periods should take at least as much time as the exercises.

The conclusions concerning the application of plyometric exercises in a training process can be now formed. Basketball training should be supported by plyo-metric training, and its intensity, one of the components of load, should exceed average values appropriate to the subject’s age. Increasing the training volume and


– 42 –



I 1 188 2,81 ± 0,11 2,59 – 3,00 –0,208 –0,1239,5 0,066

II 1 18 2,71 ± 0,08 2,61 – 2,89 0,952 1,103

I 2 18 2,84 ± 0,16 2,56 – 3,14 0,097 –0,46130,5 0,824

II 2 18 2,76 ± 0,08 2,66 – 2,91 0,585 –0,972

I 3 18 2,87 ± 0,15 2,61 – 3,15 0,197 –0,71721,0 0,858

II 3 18 2,78 ± 0,10 2,64 – 2,99 0,877 0,603

I 4 18 2,90 ± 0,14 2,71 – 3,23 0,801 –0,1779,5 0,066

II 4 18 2,79 ± 0,09 2,64– 3,95 0,529 –0,016

I 5 18 2,91 ± 0,16 2,64 – 3,23 –0,021 –0,48419,0 0,386

II 5 18 2,81 ± 0,09 2,65 – 2,95 0,074 0,360

I 6 18 2,93 ± 0,13 2,77 – 3,22 0,908 0,5705,0 0,012

II 6 18 2,79 ± 0,09 2,64 – 2,92 –0,302 –0,640

I 7 18 2,94 ± 0,13 2,69 – 3,22 0,436 0,0654,5 0,011

II 7 18 2,79 ± 0,10 2,70 – 3,03 1,745 2,267

I 8 18 2,97 ± 0,15 2,76 – 3,34 0,844 0,9932,0 0,009

II 8 18 2,81 ± 0,07 2,72 – 2,96 0,874 0,834

I 9 18 2,98 ± 0,12 2,70 – 3,18 –0,511 0,5025,0 0,012

II 9 18 2,82 ± 0,09 2,72 – 3,04 1,399 2,519

I 10 18 2,98 ± 0,15 2,77 – 3,33 0,765 0,2253,0 0,007

II 10 18 2,80 ± 0,12 2,69 – 3,06 1,322 1,056

Table 11. Descriptive statistics and significance level of the differences for 20m run m [s]


I 1 188 3,47 ± 0,14 3,21 – 3,70 –0,260 –0,55510,5 0,083

II 1 18 3,36 ± 0,10 3,23– 3,58 0,929 1,046I 2 18 3,51 ± 0,19 3,19 – 3,86 0,171 –0,587

30,5 0,824II 2 18 3,42 ± 0,10 3,32 – 3,61 0,778 –0,819I 3 18 3,55 ± 0,18 3,26 – 3,91 0,355 –0,622

31,0 0,858II 3 18 3,45 ± 0,12 3,27 – 3,70 0,709 0,076I 4 18 3,59 ± 0,18 3,37 – 4,04 0,926 0,338

10,0 0,040II 4 18 3,46 ± 0,12 3,27 – 3,66 0,616 0,307I 5 18 3,60 ± 0,19 3,28 – 4,01 0,119 –0,534

17,5 0,308II 5 18 3,48 ± 0,11 3,27 – 3,67 0,295 0,836I 6 18 3,62 ± 0,17 3,42 – 4,03 0,874 0,424

6,0 0,016II 6 18 3,46 ± 0,10 3,31 – 3,62 0,215 –0,373I 7 18 3,63 ± 0,17 3,35 – 3,99 0,519 –0,195

5,0 0,012II 7 18 3,46 ± 0,13 3,36 – 3,79 1,867 2,948I 8 18 3,67 ± 0,18 3,43 – 4,07 0,801 0,518

6,0 0,016II 8 18 3,48 ± 0,10 3,35 – 3,71 1,147 1,724I 9 18 3,68 ± 0,14 3,36 – 3,93 –0,258 0,102

4,5 0,011II 9 18 3,49 ± 0,11 3,36 – 3,76 1,534 2,784I 10 18 3,69 ± 0,19 3,41 – 4,15 0,780 0,333

3,0 0,007II 10 18 3,48 ± 0,15 3,34 – 3,82 1,542 1,717


– 43 –

reducing rest periods will adversely affect the release of elastic energy during exercises and decrease the ex-plosive strength level. Prolonging the transition phase (stance phase) leads to the diffusion of elastic energy accumulated in tissues into chemical energy and heat [8]. Duda [38] claims that if we shorten ground contact time during take-off, jump height will increase; an iden-tical mechanism is performed in specifi c plyometric ex-ercises. Future research including the plyometric train-ing should consider the intensifi cation of youth training by exercises that do not burden the motor system, that is the so-called ‘hexagon’: skipping rope, jumps over a line, depth jumps from low heights (e.g. from a bench, not higher) stressing the short stance phase with jump up and short acceleration phase. In mature athletes similar exercises should be used, increasing the height of accessories (vaulting boxes, hurdles), adding medi-cine balls – enforcing short ground contact time after landing.

The research results and the discussion presented above allow us to present the following conclusions: 1. Plyometric training increases knee fl exor and extensor

muscle strength, but its effects are greater in the case of weaker muscles – hamstrings (semimembranosus mus-cle, semitendinosus muscle, biceps femoris muscle).

2. Weekly plyometric training load turned out to be too much (mainly due to the volume component), causes endurance changes in general physical ability of the subjects.

3. Changes in knee fl exor and extensor muscles in basketball players ought to be considered in the as-pect of lateralization.

4. Signifi cant changes in the dynamic strength level can result from plyometric training applied twice a week for no less than 20 weeks.

5. Plyometric training should include highly intensive exer-cises; however training methods should be different in athletes whose growth process is not yet completed.



I 1 18 4,79 ± 0,20 4,48 – 5,16 0,278 –0,94715,0 0,109

II 1 18 4,64 ± 0,15 4,45 – 4,98 1,086 1,530

I 2 18 4,85 ± 0,25 4,43 – 5,36 0,285 –0,65526,5 0,563

II 2 18 4,71 ± 0,15 4,56 – 5,00 0,917 –0,362

I 3 18 4,92 ± 0,26 4,56 – 5,47 0,539 –0,61029,5 0,755

II 3 18 4,77 ± 0,18 4,53 – 5,11 0,708 –0,366

I 4 18 4,99 ± 0,29 4,67 – 5,73 1,089 0,90912,5 0,068

II 4 18 4,78 ± 0,17 4,55 – 5,10 0,927 0,457

I 5 18 4,99 ± 0,28 4,57 – 5,51 0,185 –0,90817,0 0,154

II 5 18 4,80 ± 0,16 4,54 – 5,09 0,808 0,771

I 6 18 5,02 ± 0,26 4,70 – 5,67 0,949 0,4812,0 0,009

II 6 18 4,79 ± 0,14 4,61 – 5,08 0,918 0,524

I 7 18 5,03 ± 0,25 4,65 – 5,57 0,614 –0,4245,0 0,012

II 7 18 4,79 ± 0,20 4,62 – 5,28 1,945 3,402

I 8 18 5,09 ± 0,24 4,74 – 5,67 0,823 0,5832,0 0,005

II 8 18 4,82 ± 0,15 4,65 – 5,17 1,434 1,867

I 9 18 5,10 ± 0,22 4,65 – 5,48 0,011 –0,2253,0 0,007

II 9 18 4,82 ± 0,17 4,61 – 5,23 1,614 3,131

I 10 18 5,13 ± 0,30 4,67 – 5,77 0,699 0,2751,0 0,004

II 10 18 4,80 ± 0,21 4,62 – 5,31 1,685 2,410


– 44 –

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[23] Nosarzewski Z, Witkowski M, Karpiłowski B, Staniak Z, Moisiejenko S: Urządzenia techniczne do diagnostyki i wspomagania procesu treningowego; in Wit A (ed.): Bio-mechaniczna ocena układu ruchu sportowca. Warszawa, Instytut Sportu, 1992: 143–155.

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[25] Grygorowicz M: Elektrostymulacja nerwowo-mięśniowa w kształtowaniu siły mięśniowej mięśnia czworogłowego uda. Praca doktorska, Katowice, AWF, 2006.

[26] Król H, Bacik B: Moc mechaniczna jako ocena zdolności siłowo-szybkościowych człowieka. Acta Bioengineer Biomech, 2000; 2, 1: 271–276.

[27] Worrell T, Perrin D, Denegar C: The infl uence of hip position on quadriceps and hamstring peak torque and reciprocal muscle group ratio values. J Orthop Sports Phys Therapy, 1989; 11: 104–107.

[28] Aagaard P, Simonsen E, Trolle M, Bangsbo J, Klausen K: Isokinetic hamstring/quadriceps strength ratio: infl uence from joint angular velocity, gravity correction and contraction mode. Acta Physiol Scand, 1995; 154(4): 421–427.

[29] Wilk K, Romaniello W, Soscia S, Arrigo C, Andrews J: The relationship between subjective knee scores, isokinetic testing and functional testing in the ACL-reconstructed knee. J Orthop Sports Phys Therapy, 1994; 20: 60–73.

[30] Rosene J, Fogarty T, Mahaffey B: Isokinetic hamstring quadriceps ratios in intercollegiate athletes. J Athl Train, 2001; 36(4): 378–383.

[31] Boraczyński T, Biernat R, Sawicki A, Kuczkowski C, Bo-raczyński M: Ocena momentów sił mięśniowych zginaczy i prostowników stawu kolanowego piłkarzy nożnych IV ligi in: Kuder A, Perkowski K, Śledziewski D (eds.): Kierunki doskonalenia treningu i walki sportowej. Warszawa, AWF, 2007.

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[35] Paliga Z: Siła zrywowa mięśni kończyn dolnych jako kry-terium sprawności motorycznej dzieci i młodzieży w wieku 7–15. Zesz Nauk AWF we Wrocławiu, 1982; 28.

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– 45 –

PSYCHOMOTOR DEVELOPMENT OF GRADE I PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN WHO ARE

EDUCATED BY MEANS OF TRADITIONAL AND NON-TRADITIONAL PROGRAM

ROZWÓJ PSYCHOMOTORYCZNY UCZNIÓW PIERWSZEJ KLASY SZKOŁY PODSTAWOWEJ EDUKOWANYCH

PROGRAMEM TRADYCYJNYM I NIETRADYCYJNYM

Ireneusz Cichy∗, Andrzej Rokita∗∗, Marek Popowczak∗∗∗, Karolina Naglak∗

∗∗∗ MSc, University School of Physical Education, Wroclaw, Poland ∗∗∗ Dr habil., University School of Physical Education, Wroclaw, Poland ∗∗∗ Dr, University School of Physical Education, Wroclaw, Poland

Key words: physical activity, educational balls, general body coordination, integrated education

Słowa kluczowe: aktywność ruchowa, piłki edukacyjne, ogólna koordynacja ciała, kształcenie zintegrowane

Aim of the work. In our study, we attempted to define the level of the general body coordination and ac-quisition of chosen educational competences by children taking part in one-year-long pedagogical experiment with educational balls “edubal”.

Material and methods. Our research comprised children from one of primary schools in Wroclaw. The experimental group I was represented by 8 girls and 8 boys. The experimental group II included 7 girls and 7 boys. Subsequently, the control group was composed of 8 girls and 12 boys. The general body coordination was examined with General Body Coordination and Control Test by Kiphard and Schiling for children aged 5–4, while for determination of acquisition level of chosen educational competences we used test elaborated in Competence Examination Institute in Wałbrzych.

The obtained results underwent a statistical analysis with Statistica 8.0.Results and conclusions. Girls from experimental group I achieved better results than girls from two other

groups EII and K in almost all trials in the range of general body coordination. The tests were conducted at the beginning and at the end of the experiment. The results of the second part of the research regarding general body coordination were much worse (both for girls and boys) than the results of the same groups in the first examination. Girls from the first experimental group obtained the best results among all groups in Competence Examination Institute Test. It was also the only group which improved their first results in the second part of our research. It is worth mentioning that the employment of games and exercises with the educational balls did not substantially influence the results in the test of the researched competence.

Cel pracy. W naszej pracy podjęliśmy próbę określenia poziomu ogólnej koordynacji ciała oraz opanowania wybranych kompetencji edukacyjnych wśród dzieci uczestniczących w trwającym rok eksperymencie pedago-gicznym z wykorzystaniem piłek edukacyjnych „edubal”.



Ireneusz Cichy, Andrzej Rokita, Marek Popowczak, Karolina Naglak

– 46 –

Materiał i metody badań. Badaniami objęci zostali uczniowie jednej z wrocławskich szkół podstawowych. Grupę eksperymentalną I reprezentowało 8 dziewcząt i 8 chłopców, eksperymentalną II – 7 dziewcząt i 7 chłop-ców, natomiast grupę kontrolną – 8 dziewcząt i 12 chłopców. Badanie ogólnej koordynacji ciała przeprowadzono w oparciu o Test Ogólnej Koordynacji Ciała i Opanowania Ciał u dzieci w wieku od 5–14 lat Kipharda i Schilinga, natomiast do zbadania kompetencji edukacyjnych wykorzystano Test Instytutu Badań Kompetencji w Wałbrzychu. Uzyskane wyniki badań poddano analizie statystycznej wykorzystując program Statistica 8.0.

Wyniki i wnioski. Uczennice z grupy EI uzyskały lepsze rezultaty niż dziewczęta z grup EII i K w prawie wszystkich próbach z zakresu Ogólnej Koordynacji Ciała, badanych na początku i na końcu eksperymentu. Wyniki zarówno wszystkich dziewcząt, jak i chłopców w badaniu II dotyczącym Ogólnej Koordynacji Ciała okazały się zdecydowanie gorsze od wyników tych samych grup w badaniu I. Dziewczęta z grupy eksperymentalnej I uzy-skały w obu badaniach najlepsze wyniki spośród wszystkich grup w Teście Kompetencji oraz jako jedyna grupa poprawiły swój wynik z badania I w badaniu II. Należy również zauważyć, że wykorzystanie zabaw i gier z piłkami edukacyjnymi nie wpłynęło istotnie na uzyskane wyniki w teście badanych kompetencji.

Introduction

At the end of the 1990s the European educational system underwent the process of signifi cant changes. The area where particular changes took place was the attitude towards the early school child education. The traditional model of education was modifi ed into a contemporary model of participation – a child was no longer treated as a passive person but as an active and creative partner of interaction [1].

In Poland, the model outlined above was addressed by a reform of the education system which started in 1999. The reform was especially focused on changes with special regard to the educational process planning and school organizational structures. However, the most signifi cant changes were introduced in the phase of early school education, which altered its name from initial education to integrated education.

According to the assumptions of the education system reform (1999), the integrated education ought to combine, in a particular way, various domains of science so that the child is enabled to perceive the image of the surrounding world as wholesome as pos-sible [2].

The changes introduced by both the program ba-sis of 1999 and the new program basis of 2009, which maintained most of the tasks of the integrated educa-tion, resulted in the situation in which teachers have more freedom and arbitrariness in choosing education-al contents and the ways of their performance.

Although all those quite radical changes were in-troduced ten years ago, we can see that teachers of the integrated education, who are engaged in the pro-cess of locomotive education, still make mistakes at this stage. Unfortunately, the introduced education pro-grams, which are numerous because they are so freely created, do not show the signifi cance of harmonious

development of all spheres of human functioning for the future of a young human being.

Therefore, during last several years, both in Poland and abroad, there have been carried out many research-ers into pedagogical examinations aimed at proving the effi ciency of the infl uence of chosen methods, forms or didactic means upon the educational achievements of students. The existence of connections between motor development of a child and his/her educational achieve-ments was also emphasized.

As it turned out, a lower level of physical develop-ment is associated with worse results in reading and counting with fi rst grade boys. This phenomenon was also confi rmed in the research by Klausmeier and Lehman [3].

Mental maturation takes place parallel to the pro-cesses of physical development. That is why Hetzler suggested applying the physical development level as one of the criteria of school maturity [3]. Also, the deve-lopment of visual perception is preceded by kinesthetic and locomotive development and both spheres – percep-tional and locomotive one – are inextricably linked with each other, what has been confi rmed by Kephart [3].

Chissom proved the existence of a signifi cant in-terrelation between motor activity and school achieve-ments, as well as school attitudes of grade I and III pri-mary school pupils. Motor competence of children was assessed according to the criterion of coordination, locomotive balance and dynamic strength [3].

A very signifi cant conclusion, from the point of view of the early school education, has been formulated by A.B. Johnson, who sought connections between school maturity tests and motor tests. On the basis of exami-nations and results of factor analysis he concluded that motor competence level should be adopted as one of the criteria of school maturity of pupils who start their education in the primary school [3].

Psychomotor development of grade I primary school children who are educated by means of traditional...

– 47 –

A.H. Ismail and J.J. Gruber went still further in their considerations concerning searching for connections between motor activity and educational achievements of children. They draw the conclusion that intellectual achievements of children can be predicted on the basis of motor factors. According to their opinion, the greatest prognostic power is associated with the following motor features: coordination and balance [3, 4].

Among the Polish authors, who wrote about the signifi cance of the proper development of physical ability in adaptation of a child to work and play in the school environment, were the following: S. Szuman, A. Dzierżanka, H. Gniewkowska, and B. Wilgocka-Okoń. These authors agreed that the development of motor activity is an important factor for making social con-tacts by a child, especially in the school environment [5]. They also proved that good agility and high abilities in games and plays (also with balls) facilitates the pro-cess of child adaptation to the surrounding reality. The children who are more agile in games and plays are also better accepted in a peer group [3].

The examination by Pawłucki also confi rmed the existence of connections between motor development and school readiness [6].

The examples from literature of the subject presen-ted above clearly show that there exist direct connec-tions between psychomotor development of a child and his/her school results, especially during the initial stage of school education.

Consequently, we intended to check whether the introduction of physical classes with the use of educa-tional balls “edubal” into the education program called “Happy School” for grade I of primary school can bring about any changes in the particular tests of general body coordination of the examined girls and boys and also in the educational competencies which are ac-quired by them during their course of learning. For the purposes of our examinations, this unique education program “Happy School”, including physical classes with the use of educational balls, has been termed “non-traditional program”, while the same program conducted in a traditional form was addressed as “tra-ditional program” [4].

Research material

Our research comprised three groups of students of Complex of Schools No 11 in Wrocław. 16 pupils made experimental EI group, 14 pupils – experimen-tal EII group, and 20 pupils made the control K group.

Experimental group I consisted of eight girls and eight boys; experimental group II consisted of seven girls and seven boys and the control group consisted of eight girls and twelve boys. Only the results of children who took part in both examinations were used in the elaboration. Moreover, all groups carried out their motor activities in the same conditions having a big and small sports hall at their disposal.

Research methods

In the research, we employed a pedagogical experi-ment along with the use of a parallel group technique [7, 8]. The planned didactic process was carried out in three groups: two experimental ones (EI and EII) and one control group (K). The classes were realized according to the education program called “Happy School” accepted for use in all grades of the integrated education process in a given school. Children from the experimental groups took part in physical classes twice a week, which were conducted by an integrated educa-tion teacher – class tutor. During these classes, edu-cational balls “edubal” were used for exercises, games and plays and they were carried out on the basis of the scenarios which were prepared by the author of the experiment together with the tutors. They referred to learning and improving the knowledge of various problematic areas in the range of mathematics and lan-guage learning which posed special diffi culties for the students.

The scenarios emphasized an element of play which was directed towards the improvement of general locomotive skills. Plays with balls constituted circa 60% of the lesson time. The remaining time was devoted to other forms of physical activity.

The control group worked under unchanged condi-tions carrying out the same education program in the whole experiment; physical activities, similarly to the ex-perimental groups, were run by an integrated education teacher who was at the same time the class tutor [4].

During the experiment, which lasted one year, gen-eral body coordination and educational competencies were diagnosed twice, i.e. at the beginning and at the end of the school year.

The examination of general body coordination was carried out by means of the General Body Coordination and Control Test with children aged 5–14 by Kiphard and Schiling [9], while for the purpose of examining key competencies we employed the test elaborated in Competence Examination Institute in Walbrzych.


– 48 –

The obtained results underwent a statistical analy-sis with the use of Statistica 8.0 program.

Results

The analyzed examination results were characterized by variability which is typical for the presented mate-rial. Therefore, for the purpose of our analysis we used positional measurements – median. When comparing more than two groups, we used the non-parametrical test ANOVA by Kruscala Wallis. All the employed statis-tical tests assumed the level of signifi cance = 0.05.

With regard to the analysis of the obtained results in General Body Coordination of girls in EI, EII and K

groups in the fi rst test (Table 1), we noticed that each time the best results in walk on the beam, jumps on one leg, side jumps and carrying over the board were achieved by the girls from EI group. The worst results when compared to EI and K groups were achieved by the girls from EII group. This is further confi rmed by the sum of obtained results during the whole test which dif-ferentiates the examined groups (Figure 1). Comparing the girls from EI and EII groups, this difference is 43.5 points in favor of the fi rst group, though we did not no-tice any statistically signifi cant differences between the examined groups (Table 1; Figure 1).

As for the boys in the fi rst examination (Table 2) we can notice that in each of the examination tests the best

Table 1. Medium results of the trials with reference to General Body Coordination of girls in groups xperimental I (EI), experimental II (EII) and control (K), (examination I)

VARIABLEEI N = 8 EII N = 7 K N = 8

x M V x M V x M V

ROWN_1 51.63 56.50 32.49 31.29 29.00 59.42 47.38 51.50 29.91

PNJN_1 40.25 42.00 21.53 30.71 30.00 35.35 37.13 35.50 28.41

BPRZE_1 44.63 45.00 17.72 31.86 34.00 15.74 40.38 39.00 22.11

PRDE_1 56.38 56.00 4.54 52.00 57.00 20.77 53.25 53.50 12.88

SUMA_1 191.75 198.50 15.84 145.86 155.00 24.54 178.13 174.00 18.81

ROWN_1 – walk on the beam PNJN_1 – jumps on one legBPRZE_1 – side jumps PRDE_1 – carrying over the boardSUMA_1 – the sum of results in General Body Coordination (examination I)

Fig. 1. Medium results achieved by girls (W) and boys (M) from the experimental group I (EI), experimental group II (EII) and control group (K), in side jumping (examination I)

Variable: BPRZE_1

Median 25%-75% Min-Maks

EI W EI M EII W EII M K W K M

[Group + gender]

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

BP

RZE

_1


– 49 –

results were achieved by the control group. In the case of walk on the beam and jumps on one leg these results were 10.5 to 18.5 points higher than in the remaining groups.

Also a summary result for the whole test was the highest in the control group and the lowest in experi-mental group II; especially in girls the result seems to be simply alarming. Similarly to the comparable girls group, non-parametrical Kruscal Willis test did not show any statistically signifi cant differences (Table 2).

Comparing the obtained results in the fi rst examina-tion between all the groups (girls and boys) we noticed a statistically signifi cant difference between experimen-

tal group II and the control group in the case of side jumps test (Figure 2).

While analyzing the obtained results for girls in examination II (Table 3) we noticed that experimental group I achieved, similarly to examination I, the best results in all the tests.

There was a particularly big difference, although statistically insignifi cant, in the case of side jumps in which the girls from group EI obtained 57 points in relation to 46 points K and 38 in EII. Apart from this, experimental group I achieved the best general test re-sult – 181 points. However, one fact is really intriguing: a general result in the General Body Coordination Test in examination II for each group is lower than in exami-

Variable: SUMA_1



[Group + gender]

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

220

240

260

SU

MA

_1

Fig. 2. Medium results achieved by girls (W) and boys (M) from the experimental group I (EI), experimental group II (EII) and control group (K), the sum of four trials in General Body Coordination (examination I)

Table 2. Medium results of the trials with reference to General Body Coordination of boys in groups experimental I (EI), experimental II (EII) and control (K), (examination I)


x M V x M V x M V

ROWN_1 32.38 33.00 56.74 26.00 25.00 42.02 42.08 43.50 34.26

PNJN_1 39.88 37.50 28.73 33.00 33.00 40.13 41.17 41.00 32.06

BPRZE_1 38.50 41.50 35.96 34.43 34.00 22.74 44.92 43.00 21.36

PRDE_1 50.38 51.00 15.23 53.29 56.00 18.06 57.00 56.00 13.85

SUMA_1 161.13 170.00 24.47 146.71 153.00 26.74 185.17 189.00 18.54

ROWN_1 – walk on the beam PNJN_1 – jumps on one legBPRZE_1 – side jumps PRDE_1 – carrying over the boardSUMA_1 – the sum of results in General Body Coordination (examination I)


– 50 –

nation I. In the case of group EI by 18.5 points, EII by 11 points and K by 13.5 points. The reason of such a poor result in all three groups can be low verbal motivation of pupils because they were not properly motivated by the teachers who ran the tests (Table 3).

When comparing the results obtained by the boys from three groups in examination II (Table 4) we no-ticed that, similarly to examination I, the control group achieved much better results than all the other groups. Both among boys and girls, the sum of results in all the tests is lower than in the case of examination I (Table 4 and Figure 3).

However, EII group, which was undoubtedly the weakest in examination I, in examination II achieved re-

sult on a similar level, while EI and K groups had much lower results, respectively by 23.5 and 22.5 points. This can be due to, similarly to the case of girls, low involve-ment of the examined children in the performance of the tests.

The results obtained by girls in examination I in Competence Test (Table 5) clearly show that the fe-male pupils who start their education in the primary school are characterized by a comparable level of the competencies under research. Further examinations of the learnt competencies, which were carried out at the end of the school year, proved that the girls from EI group (who already obtained a very good result) im-proved their result by 27.5 points out of 30 possible to

Table 3. Medium results of the trials with reference to General Body Coordination of girls in groups experimental I (EI). experimental II (EII) and control (K), (examination II)

VARIABLEEI N=8 EII N=7 K N=8

x M V x M V x M V

ROWN_2 48.88 54.50 31.08 38.14 42.00 37.03 46.38 50.50 29.23

PNJN_2 34.63 33.50 22.53 28.43 35.00 45.22 36.63 36.00 16.44

BPRZE_2 56.75 57.00 10.85 39.57 38.00 27.75 46.38 46.00 22.67

PRDE_2 33.13 32.50 11.23 29.86 31.00 19.95 31.88 31.00 12.93

SUMA_2 173.38 181.00 14.52 136.00 144.00 29.66 161.25 160.50 15.89

ROWN_2 – walk on the beamPNJN_2 – jumps on one legBPRZE_2 – side jumpsPRDE_2 – carrying over the boardSUMA_2 – the sum of results in General Body Coordination

Variable: SUMA_2



[Group + gender]

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

220

SU

MA

_2

Fig. 3. Medium results achieved by girls (W) and boys (M) from the experimental group I (EI) experimental group II (EII) and control group (K) the sum of four trials in General Body Coordination (examination II)


– 51 –

achieve. On the other hand, K and EII groups had lower results, by 2 and 4 points respectively (Table 5).

Among the boys (Table 6), similarly to the case of the girls, the obtained results in examination I were comparable and the best result was achieved by EI group.

On the other hand, examination II showed that the obtained results in the competence test among the boys are undoubtedly lower than in examination I (Table 6 and Figure 4).

Table 4. Medium results of the trials with reference to General Body Coordination of boys in groups experimental I (EI). experimental II (EII) and control (K). (examination II)

VARIABLEEI N=8 EII N=7 K N=12

x M V x M V x M V

ROWN_2 37.88 35.50 43.62 34.71 34.00 21.41 42.58 42.50 18.53

PNJN_2 28.75 25.00 47.46 33.29 38.00 42.97 39.75 35.00 30.79

BPRZE_2 46.88 48.00 33.20 39.14 43.00 21.40 50.42 52.00 17.49

PRDE_2 30.25 30.50 19.97 33.29 33.00 23.83 34.17 34.00 11.22

SUMA_2 143.75 146.50 27.94 140.43 149.00 22.52 166.92 166.50 13.41

ROWN_2 – walk on the beam PNJN_2 – jumps on one legBPRZE_2 – side jumps PRDE_2 – carrying over the boardSUMA_2 – the sum of results in General Body Coordination

Table 5. Medium results achieved by girls in Competence Test in groups experimental I (EI). experimental II (EII) and control (K). (examination I and examination II)


x M V x M V x M V

KOMP_1 25.00 26.50 17.76 23.14 25.00 25.25 25.63 26.00 9.77

KOMP_2 25.13 27.00 17.98 20.57 21.00 28.46 23.63 24.00 16.15

KOMP_1 – result of the Competence Test (examination I)KOMP_2 – result of the Competence Test (examination II)

Table 6. Medium results achieved by boys in Competence Test in groups experimental I (EI). experimental II (EII) and control (K). (examination I and examination II)


x M V x M V x M V

KOMP_1 24.63 25.00 23.97 23.86 24.00 12.44 21.75 23.00 14.95

KOMP_2 22.88 22.50 15.22 16.71 18.00 40.98 21.08 20.00 16.49

KOMP_1 – result of the Competence Test (examination I)KOMP_2 – result of the Competence Test (examination II)KOMP_2–1 – increase of the result in Competence Test (examination II – examination I)

A particularly poor result was achieved by EII group in which pupils obtained six points less than during the fi rst examination. There can be at least two reasons of this situation: fi rstly, two of the boys were absent from school for a long time during semester II and consequently, they had educational problems; secondly, the education program was not fully carried out by the teacher because of educational diffi culties which appeared while carrying out the one-year ex-periment.


– 52 –

Variable: KOMP_2-1



[Group + gender]

-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

KO

MP

_2-1

Fig. 4. Increases (KOMP_2–1) achieved by girls (W) and boys (M) from the experimental group I (EI), experimental group II (EII) and control group (K), in the final result from Competence Test (examination I)

Table 7. Comparison of the medium results achieved by girls and boys in Competence Test in groups experimental I (EI). experimental II (EII) and control (K). (examination I)


x M V x M V x M V

KOMP_K 25.00 26.50 17.76 23.14 25.00 25.25 25.63 26.00 9.77

KOMP_M 24.63 25.00 23.97 23.86 24.00 12.44 21.75 23.00 14.95

KOMP_K – result of the Competence Test for girls in examination IKOMP_M – result of the Competence Test for boys in examination I

Zmienna: KOMP_1


EI K EI M EII K EII M K K K M

[Group + gender]

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

26

28

30

32

KO

MP

_1

Fig. 5 Medium results achieved by girls (W) and boys (M) from the experimental group I (EI), experimental group II (EII) and control group (K), in the final result of Competence Test (examination I)


– 53 –

The comparison of results in the Competence Test between girls and boys in examination I in each group showed minimal differences in favor of the girls. However, none of these differences was statistically signifi cant (Table 7 and Figure 5).

The same comparison which was made after ex-amination II (Table 8 and Figure 6) revealed the same trend and the differences were also statistically insig-nifi cant, however, in each case they were again much bigger in favor of girls. Therefore, we can conclude that girls are better at learning chosen educational com-petencies. Similar conclusions had been drawn at by Rokita [10] (Table 8 and Figure 6).

Discussion

In Poland, pilot [11, 12] and proper examinations [10, 13, 14] concerning the employment of educational balls “edubal” at the stage of the early school education

Table 8. Comparison of the medium results achieved by girls and boys in Competence Test in groups experimental I (EI), experimental II (EII) and control (K) (examination II)


x M V x M V x M V

KOMP_K 25.13 27.00 17.98 20.57 21.00 28.46 23.63 24.00 16.15

KOMP_M 22.88 22.50 15.22 16.71 18.00 40.98 21.08 20.00 16.49

KOMP_K – result of the Competence Test for girls in examination IIKOMP_M – result of the Competence Test for boys in examination II

Variable: KOMP_2



[Group + gender]

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

KO

MP

_2

Fig. 6. Medium results achieved by girls (W) and boys (M) from the experimental group I (EI). experimental group II (EII) and control group (K). in the final result of Competence Test (examination II)

have been carried out since 2002. The goals, which the authors pursued, concerned the infl uence of the intro-duction of educational balls “edubal” in the realization of the didactic process on the motor development and on the process of learning chosen didactic program contents (e.g. language and mathematics education) as well.

Cichy and Rzepa wrote in their study about the relation between the use of educational balls “edubal” in grades I–III of primary school and the development of physical ability [12]. They carried out a one-year pedagogical experiment by means of the parallel group technique. After the realization of this experi-ment, they noticed that the education program which used educational balls infl uences the motor sphere in the same way as the traditional program. Krajewski came to the similar conclusion after he had carried out his examinations [14]. Analyzing the results ob-tained by the children in the range of general body


– 54 –

coordination, Krajewski stated that apart from the fact that the results were higher in relation to the examina-tion before the experiment, there was no statistically signifi cant difference in each group both in all partial assessments and in the whole assessment of the gen-eral body coordination test. Also Rokita, who carried out his research in the rural environment, as well as Wójcik and Rzepa, who examined cases of children living in a big city, stated that independently of the environment in which the educational balls “edubal” were used, children’s physical ability is comparable and did not depend on the experimental factor [15, 16]. In their research they confi rmed [11, 12, 17, 10] the existence of connections between the employ-ment of educational balls “edubal” in the integrated education and the intellectual development of the chil-dren [10]. Rokita in his study of 2008 came to an inter-esting conclusion, that the employment of educational balls “edubal” enhances the speed of reading skills acquisition but it does not impinge the writing skills in the same way.

The results obtained by the authors enable to state that the employment of educational balls “edubal” dur-ing the physical classes does not bring about any unfa-vorable changes in the spheres of physical ability and general body coordination. On the other hand, it can contribute to the achievement of goals of education in a more effective way at this stage.

Taking into account the observations outlined above, we must conclude that the employment of the didactic means of this type can constitute an attrac-tive supplement of the traditional classes conducted in school conditions.

Conclusions

1. Girls from EI group obtained better results than the girls from EII and K groups in almost all of the trials in the range of General Body Coordination which were conducted at the beginning and the end of the experiment. Only in examination II in jumps on one leg the control group’s girls achieved better results.

2. Control group boys always obtained better results than the boys from experimental I and experimental II groups in both of the examinations in the tests of General Body Coordination.

3. The results of all girls and boys in examination II in the range of General Body Coordination were slightly worse than the results of the same groups in examination I. These differences were not statis-tically signifi cant.

4. Girls from experimental group I in both of the ex-aminations obtained the best results from all the groups in the Competence Test and they were the only group that in examination II improved their re-sult in comparison with examination I.

5. The worst result among all the female and male groups in the Competence Test was achieved by control group of boys in examination I and experi-mental group II of boys in examination II.

6. All the girls in each of the examined groups obtained better results in both examinations than their grade peers in the range of the Competence Test.

7. We must conclude that the employment of educa-tional balls “edubal” did not signifi cantly infl uence the results obtained in the test of the examined competences.


[1] Bruner J: What Have We Learned About Early Learning? European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 1996, 4: 5–16.

[2] Banaszkiewicz T: Szanse i zagrożenia edukacji fi zycznej w zintegrowanym kształceniu wczesnoszkolnym [Opportu-nities and Dangers of Physical Education in the Integrated Early School Education]; in Jonkisz J, Lewandowski M (eds.): Wychowanie i kształcenie w zreformowanej szkole [Education and Upbringing in Reformed School]. Wrocław, 2003: 45–49.

[3] Wilgocka-Okoń B: Gotowość szkolna dzieci sześcioletnich [School Readiness of Six-year-old Children]. Warszawa, Żak, 2003.

[4] Cichy I, Popowczak M: Rozwój psychomotoryczny uczniów kończących pierwszą klasę szkoły podstawowej edukowanych programem tradycyjnym i nietradycyjnym

[Psychomotor Development of Pupils At the End of Grade I of Primary School Educated by Means of Traditional and Non-Traditional Program]. Rozprawy Naukowe AWF Wrocław, 2009; 27: 17–23.

[5] Cichy I: Próba określenia sprawności fi zycznej z wykorzy-staniem piłek edukacyjnych uczniów kończących I klasę szkoły podstawowej [Attempt At Determining Physical Abil-ity With the Use of Educational Balls At the End of Grade I of Primary School]; in Sekułowicz M, Kruk-Lasocka J, Kulmatycki L (eds): Psychomotoryka – ruch pełen znaczeń [Psychomotor Studies – Movement Full of Meanings]. Wydawnictwo Naukowe DSW, Wrocław, 2008; 221–228.

[6] Pawłucki A: Szkolna dojrzałość motoryczna dzieci roz-poczynających naukę [School Motor Maturity of Children Who Start Their Education]. Roczniki Naukowe AWF Warszawa, 1984; 28: 111–117.


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[7] Drozdowski Z: Wybrane zagadnienia metodologii badań naukowych w zakresie kultury fi zycznej [Chosen Issues of Research Methodology in the Range of Physical Culture]. Roczniki Naukowe AWF w Gdańsku, 1987; 4: 151–171.

[8] Łobocki M: Metody i techniki badań pedagogicznych [Methods and Techniques of Pedagogical Examinations]. Kraków, Impuls, 2007.

[9] Staśkiel A: Test koordynacji ciała Kipharda i Schellinga dla dzieci i jego pierwsze próby zastosowania w Polsce [Kiphard and Schelling Body Coordination Test for Chil-dren and Its First Attempts To Be Used in Poland. Physical Culture], Kultura Fizyczna, 1978; 12: 66–72.

[10] Rokita A: Zajęcia ruchowe z piłkami edukacyjnymi „Edu-bal” w kształceniu zintegrowanym a sprawność fi zyczna oraz umiejętności czytania i pisania uczniów [Physical Classes with Educational Balls ‘Edubal’ in the Integrated Education and Physical Ability and Reading and Writing Skills of Students]. Studia i Monografi e, Wrocław, AWF, 2008; 93.

[11] Rzepa T: Aktywność ruchowa z piłką w osiąganiu wy-branych celów kształcenia w zakresie języka polskiego w drugiej klasie szkoły podstawowej [Locomotive Activ-ity with the Ball in the Achievement of Chosen Goals of Education in the Range of the Polish Language in Grade II of Primary School]; in Koszczyc T, Dembiński J (eds.): Instrumentalne wykorzystanie gier z piłką [Istrumental Use of Ball Games]. Wrocław, WTN, 2003; 57–61.

[12] Cichy I, Rzepa T: Próba określenia kompetencji oraz poziomu sprawności ruchowej w kształceniu zintegro-wanym z wykorzystaniem piłek edukacyjnych [Attempt at Determining Competencies and Level of Locomotive Ability in the Integrated Education with the Use of Edu-cational Balls]; in Bartoszewicz R, Koszczyc T, Nowak A (eds): Dydaktyka wychowania fi zycznego w świetle współczesnych potrzeb edukacyjnych [Physical Educa-

tion Didactics in the Light of Contemporary Educational Needs]. Wrocław, WTN, 2005; 193–201.

[13] Koszczyc T (ed.): Piłki edukacyjne „Edubal” w kształce-niu zintegrowanym. Raport z badań [Educational Balls ‘Edubal’ in the Integrated Education. Research Report]. Studia i Monografi e, Wrocław, AWF, 2008; 88.

[14] Krajewski J: Gotowość szkolna dzieci kończących eduka-cję przedszkolną prowadzonych programami tradycyjnym i niekonwencjonalnym [School Readiness of Children at the End of Their Kindergarten Education with the Use of Traditional and Non-Conventional Programs]. Rozprawa doktorska, Wrocław, AWF, 2007.

[15] Rokita A: Sprawność fi zyczna dzieci klas I–III mieszkają-cych na wsi [Physical Ability of Grade I–III Children Living in the Country]; in Koszczyc T (ed.): Piłki edukacyjne „Edubal” w kształceniu zintegrowanym [Educational Balls “Edubal” in the Integrated Education]. Studia i Monografi e, Wrocław, AWF, 2007; 88: 15–21.

[16] Rzepa T, Wójcik A: Sprawność fi zyczna dzieci klas I–III mieszkających w mieście; w Piłki edukacyjne „edubal” w kształceniu zintegrowanym [Physical Ability of Grade I–III Primary School Children Living in Town; Educational Balls “Edubal” in the Integrated Education]; in Koszczyc T (ed.): Piłki edukacyjne „Edubal” w kształceniu zinte-growanym. Raport z badań [Educational Balls “Edubal” in the Integrated Education. Research Report]. Studia i Monografi e, Wrocław, AWF, 2007; 88: 26–32.

[17] Rzepa T, Wójcik A: Umiejętności czytania i pisania dzieci klas I–III mieszkających w mieście [Reading and Writing Skills of Grade I–III Primary School Children Living in Town]; in Koszczyc T (ed.): Piłki edukacyjne „Edubal” w kształceniu zintegrowanym. Raport z badań [Educa-tional Balls “Edubal” in the Integrated Education]. Studia i Monografi e, Wrocław, AWF, 2008; 88: 66–75.

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MOTOR FITNESS AND COORDINATION ABILITIESVS. EFFECTIVENESS OF PLAY

IN SITTING VOLLEYBALL

SPRAWNOŚĆ MOTORYCZNA I ZDOLNOŚCI KOORDYNACYJNE A SKUTECZNOŚĆ GRY

W SIATKÓWCE NA SIEDZĄCO

Łukasz Jadczak*, Andrzej Kosmol**, Andrzej Wieczorek***, Robert Śliwowski*

****Dr, University School of Physical Education, Poznań, Poland****Dr habil., assoc. prof., Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education, Warsaw, Poland****Dr habil., assoc. prof., University School of Physical Education, Poznań, Poland

Key words: sitting volleyball, motor fitness, coordination abilities, efficiencySłowa kluczowe: siatkówka na siedząco, sprawność motoryczna, zdolności koordyna-

cyjne, skuteczność

Aim of the work. To find relations between coordination abilities, motor fitness and effectiveness of play of sitting volleyball players.

Material and methods. The study material consisted of sixty players of the Polish sitting volleyball league. The test of general motor fitness included: dynamic strength of upper limbs, static strength of hand, muscular endurance of upper limbs, muscular strength of body, body flexibility (back muscles), endurance-speed. For the measurement of special motor fitness the following tests were used: attack, serve, overhand pass, forearm pass, tip. For the assessment of coordination abilities computer tests of coordination abilities were used which included measurement of time of simple reaction to visual stimulus (simple reaction), time of complex reaction to visual stimulus (complex reaction), effect of visual-motor coordination (Piórkowski test), orientation ability (a cross matching test), attention divisibility, orientation ability – perception. The assessment of effectiveness of play was performed according to the formula proposed by Coleman [1].

Results. The analysis of correlation between general and special fitness as well as coordination abilities and effectiveness of play indicates that the greatest impact on effectiveness of play of players in the Polish sitting volleyball league was exerted by the results of the following tests: body flexibility with endurance-speed in general fitness, ball passes, both overhand and forearm, and attack in special fitness, and in terms of coordina-tion abilities particularly great impact was noted in the test of attention divisibility, orientation-perception and complex reaction.

Conclusions. The level of majority of tested properties of motor fitness and coordination abilities shows a statistically significant relation with the effectiveness of basic technical and tactical actions applied when playing sitting volleyball.

Cel pracy. Celem pracy było poznanie zależności między zdolnościami koordynacyjnymi i sprawnością moto-ryczną a skutecznością gry zawodników w piłce siatkowej na siedząco.

Materiał i metody. Materiał badań stanowiło 60 zawodników polskiej ligi piłki siatkowej na siedząco. Badania sprawności motorycznej ogólnej obejmowały: siłę dynamiczną kończyn górnych, siłę statyczną ręki, wytrzymałość



Łukasz Jadczak, Andrzej Kosmol, Andrzej Wieczorek, Robert Śliwowski

– 58 –

mięśniową kończyn górnych, siłę mięśni tułowia, gibkość tułowia (mięśni grzbietu), wytrzymałość-szybkość. Do pomiaru sprawności motorycznej specjalnej wykorzystano następujące próby: atak, zagrywka, odbicie sposobem oburącz górnym, odbicie sposobem oburącz dolnym, „kiwnięcie”. Do oceny zdolności koordynacyjnych zastoso-wano natomiast komputerowe testy zdolności koordynacyjnych, które obejmowały pomiar czasu reakcji prostej na bodziec wzrokowy (reakcja prosta), czasu reakcji złożonej na bodźce wzrokowe (reakcja złożona), efektu koordy-nacji wzrokowo-ruchowej (test Piórkowskiego), zdolności orientacji (test krzyżowy), podzielności uwagi, zdolności orientacji-postrzegania. Oceny skuteczności gry dokonano wg wzoru zaproponowanego przez Colemana [1].

Wyniki. Analiza korelacji między sprawnością ogólną i specjalną oraz zdolności koordynacyjnych ze skutecz-nością gry wskazuje, że największy wpływ na efektywność gry zawodników w polskiej lidze piłki siatkowej na siedząco miały wyniki testów: gibkości tułowia wraz z wytrzymałością – szybkością w obrębie sprawności ogólnej, odbicia piłki zarówno sposobem górnym, jak i dolnym oraz atak w obrębie sprawności specjalnej, a w zakresie zdolności koordynacyjnych szczególnie istotny wpływ odnotowano w teście podzielności uwagi, orientacji – po-strzegania oraz reakcji złożonej.

Wnioski. Poziom większości badanych cech sprawności motorycznej, jak i zdolności koordynacyjnych wy-kazuje istotny statystycznie związek ze skutecznością podstawowych działań techniczno-taktycznych mających zastosowanie podczas gry w piłkę siatkową na siedząco.

Introduction

The requirements of sports championship level make one to realise the signifi cance of somatic, motor and psychomotor components of the actions of top players in a given discipline. This undoubtedly close relation of constitutional properties, motor fi tness and motor abili-ties can be explained also on the basis of the theory of effective action. In praxeology of sports game, the factors determining the perfection of a player and a team (including motor abilities, somatic properties) are defi ned as dispositions to play which are displayed in various play situations in the form or so called inter-dispositions, make individual and/or team action possi-ble for a player. The player’s (team’s) action abilities are thus defi ned as a dispositional and situational possibil-ity to carry out a certain action and it is possessed by a player (team) who, using one’s individual dispositions, can carry out specifi c action in existing circumstances. The measure of championship of a player (team) is an ability of an effective action in more and more diffi cult competitive conditions [2].

Regular checking of physical preparation and tech-nical abilities is signifi cant for the assessment of train-ing results. Due to an ever growing interest and dynam-ic development of sitting volleyball visible in the interna-tional arena, there is a demand for reliable, precise and accurate analysis and assessment of the sports level of players as well as teams. There are no tests assess-ing special motor fi tness of sitting volleyball players in specialist literature. With some modifi cations resulting from specifi c character of moving on the court, the tests by Downs and Wood [3], Bolach [4], Bartlett et al. [5] prepared for disabled standing volleyball players can be adapted.

Coordination abilities, in particular sport and techni-cal abilities, are of particular signifi cance in the process of sports training. They determine the degree and qual-ity of motor learning, mastering and stability of motor abilities and their appropriate and effective application in changing conditions [6, 7].

The effects of coordination abilities on sports level have been widely documented in volleyball of healthy players [8, 9, 10, 11]. The lack of reports on the relation between coordination abilities, general and special mo-tor fi tness, as well as effectiveness of play in disabled sitting volleyball players indicates the need to fi ll in this gap. The level of coordination motor abilities plays a signifi cant part in the actions of complex nature, and such occur in sitting volleyball. An equally important is-sue seems to be specifying the level of coordination motor abilities depending on the degree of disability. This issue has not been explored in literature either.

The signifi cance of watching competition in sports practice is very well known. Information collected in this way makes it possible to assess the play in quantita-tive (duration of play, the number of elements of play, its topography) and qualitative terms (effectiveness of actions, character of player’s behaviour) and has been used in sports team games for years as a part of tacti-cal preparation. In sitting volleyball similar actions are undertaken. However, the differences resulting from the adaptation of rules of the game should be taken into consideration.

In volleyball of able-bodied players quite varied methods of recording the play have been used. Renner [16] recorded information on effectiveness of attack from zone II, III and IV, whereas Pieron and Ligot [17] assessed the effectiveness of selected elements of play on various levels of competition. Attempts have been

Motor fitness and coordination abilities vs. effectiveness of play in sitting volleyball

– 59 –

made to record the play using video tape recorder [18] as well as symbols and diagrams [19].

Kaplan [20, 21] combined the assessment of effec-tiveness and topography of play in attack with a detailed factor analysis, whereas Żeczew et al. [after Wołyniec and Saryczew 22] suggested their own method of as-sessment of effectiveness of play, combined with data processing with electronic digital machines. Subject to the assessment were both individual components of tech-nique of volleyball play, e.g. block [23] and attack [24], and comprehensive technical and tactical actions of the team [25], using the methods of calculating effectiveness of ba-sic elements of play developed by the authors.

The discussed issues were also dealt with by Polish theorists [26, 27, 28, 29]. A computer assisted method of analysis and assessment of play, using an element of theory of extensive games developed by Wołyniec et al. [30] deserves particular attention. Nowadays computer programmes for quantitative and qualitative assess-ment of play are known and generally used in volleyball [31, 32, 33]. The data used in this way, often given still during the sports competition, increase the sports level of the team, and are used to prepare strategy and carry out game tactics with a specifi c opponent [34, 35, 36]. Sitting volleyball has all the hallmarks of sport of set-ting records, therefore it seems by all means justifi ed to use this type of tool also in this discipline. This kind of analysis of play in sitting volleyball of the disabled cannot be found in literature. Thus the aim of the study was to fi nd the relation between coordination abilities, motor effectiveness and effectiveness of play of sitting volleyball players.


The participants of the study were sixty players of the Polish sitting volleyball league. The material includes the results of measurements of general and special motor fi tness, coordination abilities and effectiveness of play.

The assessment of technical and tactical skills of the players was made on the basis of the effective-ness of basic elements of play (attack, serve, receiving a serve, block, the set, defence).

The tests of motor fi tness and coordination abilities as well as effectiveness of play (video recordings) per-formed at the Polish Championships tournaments were carried out twice, six months apart, in order to verify whether the studied relations change in time, i.e. in dif-ferent periods of training.

All tests (except for the assessment of effectiveness of play) were carried out in home training centres of the studied teams (Poznań, Elbląg, Wrocław, Kielce, Jelenia Góra, Szczecin, Katowice).

The effectiveness of play was assessed according to the formula [1, 34]:

−Σ

PZ PSWS =WD

where: WS – effectiveness indicator, PZ – points scored, PS – points conceded, WD – total of all actions.

Each technical element (attack, block, defence, set, serve) was assessed in a three-degree scale according to the observation sheets used by the Polish Volleyball Association.

The following tests were used for the assessment of general fi tness:● Static strength of hand measured with a hand dyna-

mometer [37].● Muscular endurance of upper limbs measured with

a bent arm hang test [37].● Dynamic strength of upper limbs measured with

a seated medicine ball throw [38].● Strength of body muscles measured with bends in

30 s [39].● Flexibility of body measured with a body lifting test

[40] – from lying on the front, hands resting along the body, the subject was lifting the body as high as possible. The distance between the fl oor and the chin of the subject was measured.

● Endurance and speed test [41] was modifi ed and involved covering the appointed distances moving on the buttocks. Instead of sitting on a medicine ball the subject was to touch the appointed circle with at least one buttock.

The following tests were used for the measurement of special fi tness:a. Serve [42] – performing 24 serves from any place of

serving area, aiming at selected zones alternately on the straight line and diagonally. For hitting the correct zone the player scored 1 point, for a good serve that missed 0 points, for a bad serve –1 point.

b. Attack [43] – the player stands in the position of the left attack (behind the connection of the attack line with side line). The setting player is in the zone III at the net (middle of attack) facing the player per-


– 60 –

forming the test. The attacking player passes the ball to the setting player then performs a run-up and a spike. After the attack he performs the action 10 times.

c. The tip [43] – the player takes position on the right attack (behind the connection of the attack line and the side line). The setting player is in the zone III at the net (middle of attack) facing the player perform-ing the test. The tested player passes the ball to the setting player who sets it along the net. The player performs a run-up, like for the attack, and then at the last moment hits the ball with a one-hand fi nger pass to a selected zone of the court (on the other side of the net).

d. Overhand pass [44] – the test involved receiving and passing the ball overhand to a rectangle sized 1.5 m by 1.2 m on the wall at the height of 115 cm, from the distance of 1.5 m.

e. Forearm pass [45] – a player makes forearm pass-es for the height of 1 m for one minute in the circle of the diameter of 4 m.

For the assessment of coordination abilities com-puter tests of coordination skills [46] were used, which included the following tests:● Measurement of time of simple reaction to a visual

stimulus (simple reaction).● Measurement of complex reaction to visual stimuli

(complex reaction).● Measurement of effect of visual and motor coordi-

nation (Piórkowski Test).● Measurement of orientation ability (cross test).● Measurement of effect of attention divisibility (com-

ponent of the ability to adjust) – attention divisibility.● Measurement of the effect of perception (compo-

nent of orientation ability) – orientation – percep-tion.

For the assessment of relations between motor fi tness and coordination abilities and effectiveness of play Spearman’s rank correlation was used.

Results

The isolation of so called prognostic features which determine the achievement of high sports performance is very signifi cant for the training process. It helps to establish the character of training in its various phases, in particular in the period of a sensitivity of a given prop-erty to motor stimulation [47].

The results of the tests of motor fi tness and coor-dination skills on two dates of tests and the effective-ness of play in the Polish sitting volleyball league were presented in Table 1. The structure of motor fi tness of sitting volleyball players was assessed with battery of tests, taking into consideration motor abilities most use-ful during the play i.e. the strength of abdomen muscles – body bends in 30 s, strength of hand grip measured with a hand dynamometer, muscular endurance meas-ured with a bent arms hang, dynamic strength of upper limbs – a medicine ball throw, fl exibility of the body and endurance-speed. While establishing the set of tests of special motor fi tness in sitting volleyball, the main cri-terion was the analysis of technique of play in this dis-cipline and they were selected in such a way so that all most frequent elements of play are contained in them – overhand and forearm passes, serve, attack, tip. The players representing high sports level are characterised by a similar and very high development of mechanisms of adaptation to physical exertion. An important factor which infl uences the results of competition, in particular in technical disciplines – and sitting volleyball is one of them – is the neuromuscular coordination. Its high level determines the achievement of sports success [46]. It is generally known that the basis of every sport disci-pline is the technique and the ability of its appropriate application in the conditions of sports competition. The rate of learning movement technique and its master-ing depends mainly on the level of coordination abili-ties which are a “genetic” basis for mastering a sports technique [48]. Thus in the presented study the level of coordination abilities was assessed using the follow-ing tests: simple reaction, complex reaction, Piórkowski test, cross test, test of attention divisibility, orientation-perception test. Previous analyses of motor fi tness and coordination abilities are the basis for the assessment of psychomotor and technical potential of individual players. In team games these elements are used in the conditions of sports competition. The measure of this competition is the effectiveness of the team which de-termines the fi nal result of a match (Table 1).

Table 2 presents correlations between general fi t-ness on two dates of tests and effectiveness of play in the Polish sitting volleyball league. Only some general fi tness properties show signifi cant relations with the ef-fectiveness of specifi c technical elements. In the tests of lifting the body and in endurance-speed test signifi -cant relation was noted between effectiveness and all tested play components. In able-bodied people lower limbs play a very signifi cant role in each element of


– 61 –

play. In sitting volleyball their function in largely limited, thus it should be assumed that disabled athletes com-pensate these limitations with other properties of mo-tor fi tness, including also the range of body movement. A large range of movement related to the greatest possi-ble sway of the body plays an important part in defence, during attack and receiving of the ball. Signifi cant rela-tions of technical and tactical elements and speed en-durance seem to be obvious. This property determines the speed and precision of moving in a long period of time which is constantly used in the game in each of its components.

Also explosive strength of upper limbs, measured with a medicine ball throw test showed a signifi cant cor-relation with effectiveness of serve (on two dates of tests 0.30 and 0.31), receiving (0.31 and 0.31), attack (0.36 and 0.35), block (0.29 and 0.33) and defence (0.29 and 0.30). Only setting of the ball did not show signifi cant relations with the dynamic strength of the upper limbs

which is probably related to the performing technique of this element, where the fastest possible reaching of the place where the ball is played and precision of its performance play a more important part.

On the opposite end of the correlation between general fi tness and effectiveness there are strength of abdomen muscles measured using a 30 s body bends test, muscular endurance measured in the bar hang test and static strength of hand measured using a hand dy-namometer. The lack of signifi cant correlations between these properties and the effectiveness of technical and tactical elements may be related to a smaller part they play in the game and may indicate the direction of play-ers’ training. These results confi rm the earlier studies in which no signifi cant correlations were noted between muscular endurance of upper limbs, static strength of hand and elements of special fi tness.

The data presented in Table 3 relates to correlation between the properties of special fi tness (overhand and

Table 1. The results of tests of motor fitness and effectiveness of play in the Polish league of sitting volleyball in the 1st and 2nd tests

TESTS

Participants n = 60

TESTS

Participantsn = 60

Number of test Number of test

I II I II

Body bends in 30 sx 19.90 19.86

Complex reaction [s]x 0.47 0.45

SD 2.93 2.81 SD 0.16 0.13

Bent arm hang [s]x 19.93 21.42

Piórkowski Test [s]x 45.17 44.35

SD 14.52 15.56 SD 9.47 7.89

Lifting the body [cm]x 34.82 32.37

Cross test [s]x 57.93 56.14

SD 12.31 10.60 SD 13.49 10.93Medicine ball throw [m]

x 6.58 6.67Divisibility of attention [%]

x 47.00 46.60SD 1.04 0.99 SD 21.97 20.40

Endurance-speed [s]x 41.83 40.22

Orientation-perception [%]x 51.10 51.40

SD 8.71 8.59 SD 12.11 11.67

Hand grip strength [kg]x 51.17 51.81

EFFECTIVENESS [%]SD 7.62 7.93

Overhead pass [number of cycles]

x 16.05 16.85Serve

x –5.0SD 6.05 5.94 SD 6.66

Underhand pass[number of cycles]

x 19.73 22.08Receiving

x 12.4SD 8.25 9.51 SD 16.05

Serve [pts.]x 5.80 6.52

Attackx 7.8

SD 3.89 3.01 SD 12.58

Attack [pts.]x 13.63 14.35

Blockx 3.9

SD 3.28 2.99 SD 10.01

Tip [pts.]x 15.52 15.92

Setx 4.5

SD 2.70 2.50 SD 13.28

Simple reaction [s]x 0.26 0.26

Defencex 6.6

SD 0.05 0.04 SD 16.58


– 62 –

forearm passes, serve, attack, tip) and the effective-ness of basic technical and tactical components (serve, receiving, attack, block, set, defence). Signifi cant cor-relations were noted in tests of overhand and forearm passes and attack with the effectiveness of all studied technical elements of the play. Signifi cant correlation was noted of the serve attempt with the effectiveness of this element in the game (0.37) and attack (0.39) which resembles a serve. The questions of correla-tion between the attempted tip with the effectiveness of technical and tactical elements i.e. serve (0.27 and 0.30), attack (0.29 and 0.32), block (0.30 in the 2nd test), set (0.28 in the 2nd test) and defence (0.29 in the 2nd test)

is quite different. A statistically signifi cant relation with serve and attack may be related to a similar movement structure.

The data presented in Table 3 clearly show signifi -cant correlation between coordination abilities and ef-fectiveness of play in the Polish sitting volleyball league. The relations of coordination abilities and the quality of serve are most visibly manifested in attempts of simple reaction (–0.35 and –0.39), complex reaction (–0.37 and –0.41), attention divisibility (0.35 and 0.43) and ori-entation-perception (0.34 and 0.52). The reaction times allow to quickly initiate and perform a short-term mo-tor movement responding to a special signal which is

Table 2. Correlation coefficients between general fitness and effectiveness of play in the Polish sitting volleyball league

Test No. of test

Technical and tactical elements

Serve [%]

Receiving [%] Attack[%]

Block [%]

Set [%]

Defence [%]

Body bends in 30 s

I 0.13 0.13 0.17 0.14 0.04 0.09II 0.09 0.08 0.18 0.08 0.00 0.07

Bar hang [s]

I 0.04 0.11 0.09 0.12 0.10 0.10II 0.02 0.09 0.08 0.10 0.08 0.09

Body lifting[cm]

I 0.36** 0.34** 0.42** 0.32* 0.35** 0.33*II 0.32* 0.35** 0.41** 0.35** 0.34** 0.36**

Medicine ball throw[m]

I 0.30* 0.31* 0.36** 0.29* 0.21 0.29*

II 0.31* 0.31* 0.35** 0.33* 0.23 0.30*

Endurance-speed[s]

I –0.31* –0.37** –0.37** –0.36** –0.31* –0.32*II –0.29* –0.35** –0.36** –0.35** –0.31* –0.32*

Hand grip strength[kg]

I 0.17 0.18 0.20 0.18 0.13 0.17II 0.18 0.18 0.21 0.19 0.13 0.16

* r significant with p ≤ 0.05, ∗∗ r significant with p ≤ 0.01

Table 3. Correlation coefficients between special fitness and effectiveness of play in Polish sitting volleyball league

Test No. of test


Serve [%]

Receiving [%]

Attack[%]

Block [%]

Set [%]

Defence [%]

Overhand passes[number of

cycles]

I 0.45** 0.53** 0.56** 0.52** 0.51** 0.56**

II 0.46** 0.55** 0.57** 0.53** 0.54** 0.58**

Forearm passes[number of

cycles]

I 0.43** 0.37** 0.47** 0.44** 0.39** 0.44**

II 0.41** 0.39** 0.46** 0.42** 0.39** 0.43**

Serve[pts.]

I 0.14 0.07 0.16 0.15 0.12 0.08II 0.37** 0.34** 0.39** 0.44** 0.48** 0.40**

Attack[pts.]

I 0.35** 0.43** 0.36** 0.38** 0.37** 0.42**II 0.41** 0.50** 0.45** 0.48** 0.45** 0.49**

Tip[pts.]

I 0.27* 0.17 0.29* 0.22 0.18 0.21II 0.30* 0.25 0.32* 0.30* 0.28* 0.29*

* r significant with p ≤ 0.05, ∗∗ r significant with p ≤ 0.01


– 63 –

the movement of the arm hitting the ball (attack, serve). Due to a complex structure of movements in sitting vol-leyball (determining the position of the whole body and its individual parts in relation to the ball, net, court) the need to watch the opponent’s and own player’s move-ments, making decisions in a small space in a short time, the relation of the described coordination tests and effectiveness of play seems very signifi cant. Only in the fi rst test of the simple reaction and Piorkówski test no statistically signifi cant correlation with effective-ness of the analysed play components was observed.

Discussion

It was assumed that the scope and level of motor fi t-ness, coordination abilities and somatic features is the basis for effective competition in sports team games. Thus, exploring the conditions of effectiveness of team’s actions may contribute to an improvement in quality of play. On the other hand, a number of factors which determine the sports performance of players and their effectiveness in play are an incentive to search for rela-tions between them, which from the cognitive and prac-tical point of view are of fundamental importance in the process of motor and tactical preparation of players.

Therefore, the aim of the study was to assess the effect of motor fi tness and coordination abilities on the effectiveness of play in sitting volleyball.

The studies of Klocek and Żak [11] on female players indicate that high level of general and special

– technical – motor fi tness determined their higher ef-fectiveness in play. In motor area, the most signifi cant components determining the quality of play are speed and strength components, which together with the age of studied players determine a higher degree the ef-fectiveness of presented technique. It has to be em-phasized that special orientation and visual-motor co-ordination determine the quality of play in the area of coordination abilities. Referring the above observation to the results of the studies carried out by Szczepanik and Szopa [49] on a group of beginner, able-bodied vol-leyball players confi rm that among the features of motor fi tness, explosive strength of upper limbs and running speed determine the effectiveness of play. Although in sitting volleyball, due to disability, these abilities do not play any part, the changes in the levels of general fi t-ness properties, including explosive strength of upper limbs and endurance-speed, and special fi tness in own study confi rm a large part of these motoricity compo-nents in the area of quality of play, including also sitting volleyball.

In the analysis of the collected material it should be borne in mind that a correlation coeffi cient, being a stat-ic measure, does not fully refl ect the cause-and-effect relation between the level of the studied coordination abilities, motor fi tness and effectiveness of play. The number of factors which may affect the relationships studied in this work is much larger and often diffi cult to study, in particular in the context of widely varying disabilities of examined players. The level of tactical

Table 4. Correlation coefficients between coordination abilities and effectiveness of play in the Polish sitting volleyball league

Test No. of test


Serve [%]

Receiving [%]

Attack[%]

Block [%]

Set [%]

Defence [%]

Simple reaction[s]

I –0.35** –0.21 –0.21 –0.20 –0.19 –0.19II –0.39** –0.32* –0.32* –0.33** –0.33** –0.35**

Complex reaction [s]

I –0.37** –0.47** –0.39** –0.50** –0.45** –0.50**II –0.41** –0.55** –0.45** –0.57** –0.52** –0.56**

Piórkowski test[s]

I –0.09 –0.16 –0.18 –0.10 –0.12 –0.14II –0.28* –0.37** –0.34** –0.31* –0.31* –0.33**

Cross test[s]

I –0.27* –0.34** –0.35** –0.34** –0.31* –0.34**II –0.37** –0.43** –0.45** –0.47** –0.43** –0.44**

Attention divis-ibility[%]

I 0.35** 0.37** 0.39** 0.39** 0.40** 0.41**

II 0.43** 0.45** 0.45** 0.48** 0.45** 0.49**

Orientation-perception

[%]

I 0.34** 0.35** 0.38** 0.43** 0.32* 0.42**

II 0.52** 0.53** 0.52** 0.59** 0.50** 0.57**

*r significant with p ≤ 0.05, ∗∗ r significant with p ≤ 0.01


– 64 –

trainedness (individual and team), programme of train-ing and technique mastering, level of motivation, mental resistance, state of health etc. may all be signifi cant. However, the noted relations may provide interesting information on the area of science that so far has not been much explored.

The study of young female volleyball players carried out by Klocek and Szczepanik [47] and concerning the relation of motor fi tness and coordination abilities with the effectiveness of serve, receiving a serve and attack showed only a high relation of precision of receiving a serve and the results of the test of locomotive speed (r = 0.58) and spatial orientation (r = 0.43). Fitness abili-ties did not show correlation with the effectiveness of serve or attack. In own studies a statistically signifi cant negative correlation was found between the endurance-speed test, corresponding to the locomotive speed test, and effectiveness of all assessed elements of play, i.e. serve, receiving a serve, attack, block, defence and set. The ability of fast moving in a longer period of time plays a very signifi cant part during the game of sitting volleyball. This property determines the time necessary to take an appropriate position and potential adjustment of the stance before passing the ball. Body fl exibility also showed statistically signifi cant relation with the ef-fectiveness of all technical components of the play. In volleyball played in a sitting position, where the impact of the lower limbs is small, the ability to manoeuvre the body in the greatest possible range of movement is very important and largely facilitates correct overhand and forearm passes as well as one-hand passes. Greater backward sway of the body in the form of so called “drawn bow” may contribute to a greater dynamics of the attack and, as a consequence, its better effective-ness. These speculations confi rm signifi cant relations of special fi tness test in attack and tipping of the ball with the effectiveness of play in attack (0.36 and 0.45 in the 1st test and 0.29 and 0.32 in the 2nd test). Statistically signifi cant correlation of special fi tness tests in attack and tip with effectiveness of serve may result from a similar structure of movement in the above elements. The relations between tests of overhand and forearm passes and the effectiveness of all assessed technical and tactical activities are not surprising, as their effec-tive performance requires from the player a very good mastering of the basics of technique. A more contro-versial question is the one of the relation between the results of tests of passes and serve and attack in which the ball is hit with one hand with an inside part of the hand, not the fi ngers (overhand pass) or lower arms

(forearm pass). Also in a block, due to the manner of performance the ball is not hit in any of the above ways. This may be explained only partly by scoring points after returning of the ball on the opponent’s side (one-handed and two-handed) which was qualifi ed as attack or performance of the serve by underhand one-handed pass. Using other types of tests could complete and explain the reasons for the above situations.

The tests aiming to fi nd a set of features which char-acterise a high class volleyball player involved studying their relations with the sports level and effectiveness of play. They confi rmed the signifi cance of appropriate body build [50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57], in particular the signifi cance of height, body proportion and length of limbs was emphasised. Also the signifi cance of the level of some fi tness abilities was emphasised, in par-ticular speed and strength [11, 58, 59, 60]. On the basis of own studies aiming to fi nd motor fi tness features and coordination abilities which have the greatest impact on the effectiveness of play of players in the Polish sitting volleyball league, it is diffi cult to indicate unambiguous-ly the properties which to a largest extent contributed to more effective play of individual players, formation or teams. Nevertheless, within properties of general fi tness we may indicate mainly endurance, speed and body fl exibility, as well as, to a lesser degree, dynam-ic strength of upper limbs as the ones which played a greater part in the effectiveness of play then others. The effect of the endurance-speed test on the effec-tiveness of play in the context of great age differences of the participants seems logical. On the other hand the manner of moving on the court required the participants to have an appropriately high level of body fl exibility. Dynamic strength of upper limbs affects the dynam-ics of such technical and tactical elements as attack and serve, which signifi cantly infl uence the course of a match in sitting volleyball. In terms of special fi tness, both overhand and forearm passes, as well as attack correlated to the effectiveness of play to a largest ex-tent. Ball passes occur in various forms in almost every situation in the match, therefore their high level deter-mines the effectiveness of such technical and tactical elements of the game as set, receiving or defence of the ball. The attack is the main source of scoring points, hence a high correlation with the effectiveness of play is unquestionable.

The studies on the signifi cance of coordination abilities in volleyball indicate that there is a relation-ship between spatial orientation and usefulness for the game [61], reaction time and effectiveness of defence


– 65 –

and block [62], as well as between balance, spatial ori-entation and visual-motor coordination and the level of technique [8, 9]. The own study confi rms the sig-nifi cance of the effect of orientation-perception, visual-motor coordination (cross test) and complex reaction on the effectiveness in all studied technical and tactical elements. The complexity of the game, changeability of situations, the need to constantly watch and control the actions of players of one’s own and the opponent’s teams as well as the ball in play explains the statisti-cally signifi cant correlation of attention divisibility and effectiveness of play.

The analysis of correlation between general and special fi tness and coordination abilities and effective-ness of play indicate body fl exibility and endurance-speed within general fi tness, as well as overhand and forearm passes and attack within special fi tness, as those that have the greatest impact on the effective-ness of play in the Polish sitting volleyball league. In terms of coordination abilities, attention divisibility, ori-entation-perception and complex reaction had a par-ticularly great impact on the effectiveness of play on both dates of tests. In team games, including sitting volleyball, where the situation is constantly changing and players have to take into account the positions of the opponents, the ball, net, and fl oor in relation to one another, and this in a very short time, a high level of the above coordination abilities impacts the course of the game in a particular way.

In this study we tried to explore the relationships be-tween the motor fi tness and coordination abilities and the effectiveness of play of sitting volleyball players. An important methodological question, which would require a future verifi cation, is the selection of tests the reliability and precision of which will take into ac-count the problem of various types of disabilities, which makes it very diffi cult to assess the motor fi tness – and therefore its impact on the effectiveness of play.

Conclusions

1. The effectiveness of basic technical and tactical elements (serve, receiving, attack, block, set, de-fence) show close relations with the level of motor fi tness and coordination abilities.

2. In special motor fi tness tests overhand and forearm passes as well as attack have the greatest impact on the effectiveness of basic elements of play in sit-ting volleyball.

3. The properties which have the greatest impact on the effectiveness of technical and tactical actions in sitting volleyball are endurance-speed and fl ex-ibility of back muscles with the participation of body in tests of general motor fi tness.

4. Among coordination abilities orientation-perception, attention divisibility and complex reaction show the greatest impact on the effectiveness of elementary components of play in sitting volleyball.

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THE CALORIFIC COST OF YOUNG WOMEN’S LEISURE ACTIVITY

KOSZT KALORYCZNY AKTYWNOŚCI WOLNOCZASOWEJ MŁODYCH KOBIET

Bożena Królikowska*, Michał Rozpara **, Władysław Mynarski ***,Bogusława Graczykowska****, Daniel Puciato *****

***** Dr, Department of Active Forms of Tourism and Recreation, Opole University of Technology ***** MSc, Department of Active Forms of Tourism and Recreation, Opole University of Technology***** Dr habil., assoc. prof., Department of Active Forms of Tourism and Recreation, Opole University of Technology ***** Dr, Department of Active Forms of Tourism and Recreation, Opole University of Technology***** Dr, Department of Geography and Economics of Tourism, Opole University of Technology

Key words: physical activity, leisure, calorific cost, accelerometry, caltrac, womenSłowa kluczowe: aktywność fizyczna, wolnoczasowa, koszt kaloryczny, akcelerometria,

caltrac, kobiety

Aim of the research. The aim of the research is an attempt to compare a weekly calorific cost of leisure activity of women regularly and irregularly physically active in the everyday and habitual activity.

Material and method. The research covered 34 women aging 18–35 and residing on the territory of the Opole province. For the research two groups of women were selected. The first one was made up of women who did not undertake a regular physical activity and the other one was made up of women exercising regularly. In this research a method of an indirect observation was applied and a weekly calorific cost of the two groups of women was measured with an accelerometer – Caltrac Monitor. The results of the monitor-ing of the weekly energetic expense done by women were expressed in kilocalories (kcal) per week and kilocalories per day.

Results. The total calorific cost of everyday (habitual) activity done by women in their ordinary week was various in the compared groups. The women exercising regularly achieved almost twice higher calorific cost than the other research group, which was a result of their different lifestyles. In both groups of the women the calories spent on physical activity constituted approximately 70% of their total caloric cost of habitual activities and it exceeds the energetic cost accompanying passive forms of leisure activities.

Conclusions. It should be noticed that the caloric expense of a physical leisure activity done in a free time per week by the researched women was too low to meet the health recommendations taken by Paffenbarger (about 2000 kcal per week and 300 kcal per day pro physical activity). Definitely, those who were close to meet the above recommendations were the women regularly physically active.

Cel badań. Próba porównania tygodniowego kosztu kalorycznego wolnoczasowej aktywności kobiet regularnie i nieregularnie aktywnych fizycznie na tle czynności codziennych (habitualnych).

Materiał i metoda. Badaniami objęto 34 kobiety w wieku 18–35 lat, mieszkanki województwa opolskiego. Wyróżniono dwie grupy badanych: osobniczki nieregularnie aktywne ruchowo oraz systematycznie ćwiczące. W pracy zastosowano metodę obserwacji pośredniej, a tygodniowy wydatek kaloryczny badanych kobiet mierzono akcelerometrem Caltrac Monitor. Uzyskane wyniki monitoringu tygodniowego wydatku energetycznego kobiet ujęto w kilokaloriach (kcal) na tydzień i kilokaloriach na dzień.



Bożena Królikowska, Michał Rozpara, Władysław Mynarski, Bogusława Graczykowska, Daniel Puciato

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Wyniki badań. Całkowity koszt kaloryczny przypadający na codzienną (nawykową) aktywność kobiet w zwy-czajowym tygodniu ich życia był zróżnicowany w porównywanych grupach. U kobiet regularnie aktywnych był on blisko dwukrotnie wyższy niż u pozostałych badanych, co było skutkiem odmiennego trybu życia. W obu grupach kobiet kalorie wydatkowane na aktywność wolnoczasową stanowiły około 70% całkowitego kosztu kalorycznego ich aktywności habitualnej, przewyższając wydatek energetyczny towarzyszący biernym formom spędzania czasu wolnego.

Wnioski. Należy zauważyć, że wydatek kaloryczny przypadający na aktywność fizyczną podejmowaną w czasie wolnym w ciągu zwyczajowego tygodnia życia badanych kobiet był zbyt niski, by spełniać zalecenia prozdrowotne przyjmowane przez Paffenbargera (około 2000 kcal na tydzień i 300 kcal w ciągu dnia na aktywność ruchową). Zdecydowanie bliższe spełnieniu tych zaleceń były kobiety systematycznie aktywne ruchowo.

Introduction

The civilization of the 21st century provides us with nu-merous facilities but it also limits a proper functioning of a human system. The consequence of the occurring changes is a necessity to increase our care about health associated with an optimal mood and wellness [1]. The factor which decides about our health in 50–60% is our lifestyle [1–3]. The World Health Organisation defi nes it as an outcome of individual preferences and behavioural patterns as well as living conditions of the existence, determined by psychological, social, economic and cul-tural factors [4]. The essential part of a desired lifestyle is widely recognized everyday and habitual physical ac-tivity with the predominance of a physical effort [1, 5–10] which nowadays is currently recognized as one of the basic human needs, disregarding the stage of their lives, as their genome was shaped in a phylogenesis by an adoption of a system to extremely diffi cult surrounding conditions which required from a human to make fre-quently extremely intensive physical efforts. In the result of that a drastic limitation of physical activities becomes one of the threats to the health of modern generations preferring a sitting lifestyle [1, 6, 7, 11–14].

In the literature of this subject there are many defi -nitions of a physical activity. Bourchard, Shephard [6] identify it with work done by the skeletal muscles result-ing in an energetic expense exceeding a static metabo-lism. They also take it for a primary health factor and its best indicator. An intentional, regular and rational physical activity is commonly nowadays identifi ed as a desired mean of health creation and prevention and treatment of civilization diseases (mainly hypokinetic). Its results are determined by a proper dose of physical effort: intensity and volume of exercises (their duration, number of repetitions, length of distance, caloric cost). The aim of activity is also important, as well as psychic attitude, infl uence of a surrounding [15–17].

According to WHO report, a dose of a physical activity which is positive for health should exceed the

volume of 3,5 hours a week [18]. American experts say that to maintain a state of health an adult should under-take a physical activity of an intermediate intensity in the majority of week days (4–5 times) for approximately 30 minutes [7, 19] However, there are only general rec-ommendations as a dose of an effective physical activ-ity has to be individually adapted to the psychophysical abilities of a given person [1, 20, 21].

A caloric or, in other words, an energetic expense of the volume of a physical activity is taken for its best indi-cator [2, 22]. According to Kłosowski [23] the necessity of measuring a caloric cost of a physical effort of a now-adays human being results from a shortage of the equi-librium in a daily energetic balance, which is the reason for most problems connected with a phenomenon of hy-pokinesis. The amount of used energy as an indicator of an activity level can be expressed in traditional units of heat – in calories (cal), a kilocalorie (kcal) is frequent-ly used. The energetic balance results from the sum of energy absorbed in a form of food and a daily energetic expense necessary to support life processes, as well as the energy used for various physical and psychic activi-ties, which is called an active energetic expense. The bigger the caloric cost of physical activity, the bigger the chance to counteract an energetic balance of con-temporary man and its benefi cial infl uence on human’s health [21]. It has been proved that in a case when 300 kcal are spent daily, then the signifi cant changes in the level of physical fi tness and metabolism of a human be-ing can be expected [24]. In the opinion of Paffenbarger and the co-authors [25], the satisfactory amount of a weekly physical activity is a physical effort leading to the energetic expense of 2000 kcal for people aging 20–59 years and of a body mass of 70 kg. For smaller or bigger mass, the energetic expense should be pro-portionally lower or higher. It depends on the age and physical activity as well [25–27]. In the situation like this, a search for accurate, reliable and commonly ac-cessible means (tools) of assessment and measuring a caloric expense of a physical activity has its utilitar-

The calorific cost of young women’s leisure activity

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ian reason. One of the methods used for this reason is a mechanical or electronic monitoring of a volume of a physical activity in which the measuring tools are movement indicators and acceleration indicators (ac-celerometers). In the group of accelerometers one of the most used measuring tools in this group is a device called Caltrac Monitor [17, 27].

Many foreign researchers have dealt with a problem of measuring a volume of a physical activity by means of accelerometers and they have proved their practical usefulness [28–32]. The devices of this type are more and more frequently applied in the national researches of a caloric cost of different forms of recreation and ev-eryday physical activity [33–36].

In the literature of this subject we came across the research connected with the social activity according to the different ages. There was a lot of attention paid to the subject of the young generation. It should be em-phasized that a physical activity is lower in girls and women than in boys and men [37–39]. The researches of physical activity volume, presented in this paper, show that such an activity is especially recommended for women at different age.

The subject of this research work is a habitual and leisure activity of young women assessed along with its caloric cost. As a habitual activity we understand the everyday human activities connected with daily routine such as professional work, education and habits; that’s why it is called habitual activity [40]. Meanwhile the free leisure activity is mainly connected with the way of spending the free time by average human being. The activities done in this category may be of different kinds such as passive (imitative – inactive) and active (crea-tive). We should take in mind that leisure activity is re-ally an ambiguous term. It’s very often hard to say what is a leisure activity and what is a daily routine.

The aim of the research

The main aim is an attempt to assess a weekly caloric expense of a leisure activity done by women who are regularly and irregularly physically active in their every-day (habitual) lives. Such an aim of research was pre-sented in a form of the following research questions:1. What is an average caloric expense accompanying

daily and weekly activity of young women during their typical week?

2. What part of their weekly caloric cost of everyday activity may be ascribed to the active and passive leisure activity of the researched women?

3. What part of an energetic expense connected with activities done in leisure time may be ascribed to a physical activity?

4. In which way does a weekly caloric cost of a physi-cal activity taken in a leisure time done by the re-searched women meet the criteria of a volume ben-efi cial for health?

The research questions based on the following hy-potheses:1. A weekly caloric cost of an activity done by women

who are not regularly physically active will not be suffi cient to meet the criteria of a healthy lifestyle.

2. A weekly volume of a physical leisure activity ex-pressed in calories in women systematically under-taking a regular physical activity will probably meet the criteria of a healthy lifestyle in a scope of physi-cal efforts.

Research material, methods and tools

There were thirty–four women, aged 18–35, who par-ticipated in this research and all of them were the resi-dents of the Opole province. Over half of them – 55% were students, 25% joined studies with professional career and only 20% of them worked professionally. To realize these aims, they were divided into following groups:– those who do not exercise regularly; in a text they

are addressed as a group irregularly physically ac-tive (and a group I),

– those who are regularly undertaking a physical effort, called also the regularly physically active (group II); they were the fi tness instructors.

The research process covered a sequence of sev-en days in the daily lives of the examined women in the autumn 2008.

For the purpose of this work, the method of an indirect observation was applied. The measurement of a caloric expense was performed by means of an accelerometer – Caltrac Monitor – that reacts on the speeding of the whole body and enables a measurement of a physical activity for a period of several and several or more dozen of minutes as well as for a period of several days or even a whole month [35]. Before the tests started, in memory of the device the data concerning age, sex, height and weight of each participant has been stored. According to the recommendations, in the measurement process Caltrac was carried on a belt attached to a waist, so it


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did not disturb a person in an unconstrained movement during a day. The registered values of the monitoring of the burnt calories were written down in a card of habitual activity, which was especially worked out for this reason. It was done every morning when the device was put on and every evening while taking it off as well as before and after the main daily activities. The bath and night sleep were not taken into consideration because of the techni-cal restrictions of the device.

To make the analysis of the results of monitoring of an energetic expense, the activities done during a day were classifi ed:1. Activities done permanently, so called daily activi-

ties – morning and evening washing, preparing and having meals, moving to work, school, home, etc., activities connected with professional work, study-ing and housework.

2. Activities done in leisure time:a) passive – perceptive forms of spending free time

(having a nap, watching TV, listening to music, etc.),

b) active (creative) ways of spending free time such as:– efforts of intellectual kind (reading maga-

zines, books, solving cross-word puzzles, activities involving enriching knowledge for the sake of self-improvement),

– physical activities (different forms of exercis-ing, gardening, DIY activities, etc.).

The results of a weekly monitoring were expressed in kilocalories (kcal a week–1). The results were also showed in calories per day (kcal a day–1).

Research results and discussion

The average age of the researched women physically active irregularly amounted to 23 ± 2.88 and in a case of those systematically active reached 24.7 ± 3.93. The average height was 165.45 ± 6.82 in the fi rst group and 166.79 ± 4.76 cm in the second one. The aver-age weight of non-active ones was up to 60.00 ± 7.43 and 58.07 ± 5.12 kg in the group of those regularly ex-ercising. The BMI-index in the group of the examined women who were not active ranged from 18.42 to 25.08 kg × m–2, on average 21.87 kg × m–2. In a similar exam-ple – 18.78–26.45 kg×m–2 was the value of BMI for the group of women who were regularly active. In this case the average reached the level of 20.90 ± 2.00 kg × m–2 (Tab. 1). Only two women out of each group presented BMI indicator whose value of 18–25 kg × m–2 was ex-ceeded, which stands for their slight overweight [41].

While analyzing a caloric expense of the habitual activity of the women who were irregularly active dur-ing the entire monitored week of their lives, it can be concluded that an average caloric expense equaled 2521.70 kcal, which divided into a daily portion equaled 360.24 kcal (Tab. 2). In the own researches there was observed the high level of the diversity of the habitual human weekly activity of women irregularly physical-ly active. A weekly activity per person differs a lot – 635.42 kcal/week. The lowest weekly caloric expense per person reached 1514.00 kcal, (216.43 kcal/day) and the highest one 3440.00 kcal (491.43 kcal/day). In the group of regularly active women the average number of calories burnt during a weekly habitual activity was

Table 1. Numeric characteristics of age, features and somatic built indicators of women irregularly (I) and regularly (II) physically active

Variables Unit Group x s V Min Max t p*

Age [years]I 23.00 2.88 12.4 17.0 30.0

–1.7 0.5II 24.71 3.93 15.0 20.0 35.0

Height [cm]I 165.45 6.82 4.2 147.0 176.0

–0.3 0.3II 166.79 4.76 2.5 154.0 175.0

Weight [kg]I 60.00 7.43 12.9 46.0 70.0

0.4 0.1II 58.07 5.12 8.2 53.0 72.0

BMI [kg×m–2]I 21.87 1.92 8.0 18.2 25.8

1.1 0.7II 20.90 2.00 9.9 18.8 26.5

* In Tables 1–5 the significance level p < 0.05 is written in bold letters and the level p < 0.01 has been denoted in bold italics.


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4887.79 kcal/week (698.26 kcal/day), which was twice as much as in the group I, with a standard deviation of 836.00 kcal, a minimum value per person was 3855.00 kcal (550.71 kcal/day) and maximum one 6411.00 kcal (915.86 kcal/day). The big differences in the burnt en-ergy in both groups surely result from a character of the undertaken activities with a predominance of a physical effort on the part of the women regularly active, their lifestyle and somatic structure (weight) of their bodies as well as the intervals that the said activity was done. Their interests and hobbies turned out to be important as well, but they were not explored.

If we take into consideration the group of women who were irregularly active, it can be stated that their everyday activities took 1693.75 kcal (Tab. 2), on aver-age, which constituted 67% in the percentage scheme

of the whole burnt calories in the process of the moni-toring (Fig. 1). In a case of regularly active systemati-cally researched women the caloric cost of such activi-ties reached a far higher level of 2964.57 kcal a week, (423.51 kcal/day), (Tab. 2). The percentage share of the constant activities in the total caloric cost, for this group, was 61% (Fig. 1).

The higher energetic expense in the group of wom-en regularly active was the effect of fi tness exercises done by them, which were treated as the obligatory ac-tivities. This share of a caloric cost in the total activities regularly taken was up to 1702.14 kcal/day, i.e. 243.16 kcal/day (Tab. 3). It is known that the fi nal results of everyday activities’ caloric cost assessment of the ex-amined women are affected by different factors such as: the kind of professional work, the duration of an ac-

Table 2. Numeric characteristics of a weekly and daily caloric cost of total indicators of a caloric cost of a physical activity done by women irregularly (I) and regularly physically active

Variables Unit Group x s V Min Max t p

Weekly caloric cost of activities done

regularly

[kcal/week] I 1693.75 464.29 27.41 1029.00 2566.00

–5.89 0.000[kcal/week] II 2964.57 792.47 26.73 1877.00 4328.00

[kcal/day] I 241.96 66.33 27.41 147.00 366.57

[kcal/day] II 423.51 113.21 26.73 268.14 618.29

Weekly caloric cost of a leisure activity

(total)

[kcal/week] I 827.95 351.32 42.43 325.00 1391.00

–6.12 0.000[kcal/week] II 1923.21 684.99 35.62 1162.00 3603.00

[kcal/day] I 82.06 47.12 57.43 21.57 167.00

[kcal/day] II 231.09 104.67 45.30 127.43 500.00

Weekly caloric cost of habitual activity

[kcal/week] I 2521.70 635.42 25.20 1514.00 3440.00

–9.38 0.000[kcal/week] II 4887.79 836.00 17.10 3855.00 6411.00

[kcal/day] I 360.24 90.77 25.20 216.29 491.43

[kcal/day] II 698.26 119.43 17.10 550.71 915.86

Fig. 1. The percentage scheme of the total weekly caloric cost in the groups of irregularly (I) and regularly physically active (II)

67%

33%

Group I


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tivity, its intensity or the weight of a researched person. It may explain such a big discrepancy of the results in the compared groups. It comes from the results shown in Table 3 that the women in both groups burnt the most calories while doing their obligatory activities and tak-ing the majority of their time during a day, and they are as follows: work, learning, housework, which can be observed in relation to the women that are systemati-cally physically active.

The total weekly caloric cost of the daily activities of the researched women resulted also from an energetic expense of leisure activities – all activities undertaken in their free time. The average value of the energy spent on leisure activity in a group of women irregularly ac-tive was 827.95 kcal/week, which gave only 82.06 kcal/week and constituted 33% of all burnt calories during a week. In group II the same value exceeded by almost 100% the results achieved by the women irregularly

Table 3. Numeric characteristics of a weekly and daily caloric cost of activities constantly done by women irregularly (I) and regularly physically active

Variables Unit Group x s V Min Max

Morning activities

[kcal/week] I 110.00 27.82 25.29 69.00 192.00

[kcal/week] II 157.79 61.90 39.23 67.00 272.00

[kcal/day] I 15.71 3.97 25.29 9.86 27.43

[kcal/day] II 22.54 8.84 39.23 9.57 38.86

Commuting from home to work/school

[kcal/week] I 390.90 221.96 56.78 135.00 982.00

[kcal/week] II 357.57 153.34 42.88 156.00 680.00

[kcal/day] I 55.84 31.71 56.78 19.29 140.29

[kcal/day] II 51.08 21.91 42.88 22.29 97.14

Activities connected with work/learning

[kcal/week] I 467.10 146.38 31.34 243.00 687.00

[kcal/week] II 1702.14 701.79 41.23 712.00 2993.00

[kcal/day] I 66.73 20.91 31.34 34.71 98.14

[kcal/day] II 243.16 100.26 41.23 101.71 427.57

Commuting home from work/school

[kcal/week] I 403.95 171.75 42.52 159.00 844.00

[kcal/week] II 306.36 146.27 47.74 165.00 679.00

[kcal/day] I 57.71 24.54 42.52 22.71 120.57

[kcal/day] II 43.77 20.90 47.74 23.57 97.00

Activities connected with housework

[kcal/week] I 265.45 110.23 41.52 79.00 468.00

[kcal/week] II 383.93 208.38 54.28 106.00 658.00

[kcal/day] I 37.92 15.75 41.52 11.29 66.86

[kcal/day] II 54.85 29.77 54.28 15.14 94.00

Activities done before a night rest

[kcal/week] I 56.35 16.58 29.42 11.00 94.00

[kcal/week] II 56.79 16.88 29.72 35.00 89.00

[kcal/day] I 8.05 2.37 29.42 1.57 13.43

[kcal/day] II 8.11 2.41 29.72 5.00 12.71


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physically active, and on average it weekly reached – 1923.21 kcal (231.09 kcal/day), which constituted 39% of the total amount of calories burnt by them per week.

The data presented in Table 2 shows that all the differences between the groups (a weekly caloric cost: habitual activities constantly done, total leisure activi-ties, all week learning activity) are statistically signifi -cant (p < 0.001).

It is commonly known that not only the quantity but also the way we make use of leisure time is important. A human can spend it on less or more valuable activi-ties. In this context it appears important to put a ques-tion in what way the examined women used their free time and especially what kind of place their physical activities take among the leisure conduct.

The analysis of the aspect of the leisure behaviours were started with comparing a caloric cost of passive leisure activities in groups I and II connected with the activities such as watching TV, socializing, listening to music, having a nap. An average caloric expense of the women irregularly active was 253.55 kcal, which cal-culated per day was 36.22 kcal and constituted 31% of a weekly caloric cost of their leisure activity (Fig. 2). In the group of regularly active women an average amount of spent calories, in this fi eld of their lifestyles, was 305.57 kcal/week (43.65 kcal/day; Tab. 4), what

constituted 16% of a weekly energy expense of a lei-sure activity (Fig. 2). It can be said that the caloric costs of the leisure activities of a passive character was twice as high as in the group of the irregularly active women and at the same time that such behaviours fi ll their free time space.

An intellectual effort was taken into consideration also as a part of leisure activity of an intellectual kind. In the group I this part the results were not analyzed because during a week only 2 persons out of 20 under-took the activities of this type. Therefore it is possible to conclude that it is not a preferable way of spending free time when it comes to this group. On the other hand, the group II spent on average 221.64 kcal/week on an intellectual activity (Tab. 4), which constituted 11% of the total amount of burnt calories (Fig. 2).

Another group of activities which we focused on in our analysis was a leisure activity connected with a physical effort. Its caloric cost in the group of irregu-larly active per week was 574.40 kcal, which convert-ed on a daily rate was 82.06 kcal. It was 69% of their weekly energetic expense on a leisure activity (Fig. 2). A huge standard deviation (329.85 kcal/week) indicates a signifi cant dissipation of the results among the aver-age value. The analyzed form of activity covered mainly such activities as: going shopping/an outing to a super-

Table 4. Numeric characteristics of a weekly and daily caloric cost of leisure activities done by women irregularly (I) and regularly physically active


Passive leisure activity

[kcal/week] I 253.55 136.65 53.89 68.00 660.00

–1.09 0.282[kcal/week] II 305.57 136.03 44.52 103.00 605.00

[kcal/day] I 36.22 19.52 53.89 9.71 94.29

[kcal/day] II 43.65 19.43 44.52 14.71 86.43

Active leisure activity (intellectual)

[kcal/week] I – – – – –

– –[kcal/week] II 221.64 76.57 34.55 114.00 401.00

[kcal/day] I – – – – –

[kcal/day] II 31.66 10.94 34.55 16.29 57.29

Active leisure activity (physical efforts)

[kcal/week] I 574.40 329.85 57.43 151.00 1169.00

–4.37 0.000[kcal/week] II 1396.00 747.26 53.53 778.00 3320.00

[kcal/day] I 82.06 47.12 57.43 21.57 167.00

[kcal/day] II 199.43 106.75 53.53 111.14 474.29


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market, going to church or settling different matters in town and for a few people it was a walk or an individual gymnastics at home or going to a disco with friends.

Those who were systematically physically active, in their free time during a week, burnt considerably more calories than those belonging to the group I – on aver-age they burnt 1396 kcal per week, (199.43 kcal/day), which constituted 73% of their weekly leisure activity (Tab. 4, Fig. 2).

Considering the whole team of the research women consisting of the persons declaring a short-age of a regular participation in forms of physical rest as well as those regularly making physical efforts, it was interesting to fi nd out if or to what extend their caloric expense of leisure activities was close to a recommended healthy conduct which was stated by Paffenbarger and the coauthors and Kuński [25, 26]. Taking into consideration a required amount of energetic expense spent on a physical activity taken by the authors mentioned above (about 2000 kcal per week and 300 kcal per day pro physical activity), we

calculated an average value for each group of the re-searched women [27]. In case of those who were ir-regularly active it was the value of 1714.29 kcal/week, which was 244.90 kcal/day and in the group of irregu-larly active ones 1659.18 kcal/week (237.03 kcal/day; Tab. 5).

It results from the calculations that the group ir-regularly active women lacked 1139.83 kcal/week (162.84 kcal/day) to meet the recommendations of a healthy activity. A signifi cantly smaller difference was observed in a group of the examined women who regu-larly were active – 263.18 kcal/week (37.60 kcal/day). In the group of the women that are irregularly active it was possible to observe a considerable difference between an actual caloric cost of a leisure activity and a required one (66%), which constituted only 34% of the required amount, while in the group of those regularly active ones up to84 %. It is necessary to add that in the latter group a signifi cant part of energy was used for a physical effort, however, it was not qualifi ed as a leisure activity but an activity connected with work

Fig. 2. A percentage scheme of a weekly caloric cost of a leisure activity of women irregularly (I) and regularly physically active (II)

31%

69%

Group I

16%

11%

73%

Group II

Passive leisure activity

Active leisure activity(intellectual)

Active leisure activity(physical efforts)

Table 5. The degree of meeting the recommendations of a weekly volume a physical activity done by women irregularly (I) and regularly physically active


A weekly recommended volume of a physical activity

[kcal/week] I 1714.29 212.40 12.39 1314.29 2000.00

0.84 0.407[kcal/week] II 1659.18 146.32 8.82 1514.29 2057.14

[kcal/day] I 244.90 30.34 12.39 187.76 285.71

[kcal/day] II 237.03 20.90 8.82 216.33 293.88

The degree of meeting the recommendations of a weekly volume a physi-cal activity

[kcal/week] I –1139.89 347.95 –30.52 –1677.57 –345.29

–4.39 0.000[kcal/week] II –263.18 793.89 –301.65 –1074.14 1662.86

[kcal/day] I –162.84 49.71 –30.52 –239.65 –49.33

[kcal/day] II –37.60 113.41 –301.65 –153.45 237.55


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–conducting fi tness classes. Having taken into consid-eration a caloric cost of these activities, it appeared that the examined women from the group II, would have met the requirements of a proper volume of a physical activ-ity benefi cial for health on the average.

In the result of the analysis of the achieved results, it is possible to state that the fi rst hypothesis taken in this thesis was verifi ed positively. A caloric cost of a weekly physical activity of the examined women who are active irregularly turned out to be relatively low, which proves the fact that none of them meets the requirements of the recommended volume of a physical activity benefi cial for health. However, the second hypothesis assuming that a weekly energetic expense that accompanies a physical activity of the women regularly active will meet the above criteria was not proved. This group also does not meet the recommended standards, though it considerably ap-proaches them.

Summing up, it is possible to state that despite the increasing knowledge of the infl uence of a physical activity on a human system and possibilities to mea-sure its caloric cost, for too many people undertaking a regular physical effort still remains only in the sphere of opinions and declarations and they are not put into practice in their everyday lives, which was proved by the results of our research.

Therefore we search for the ways of constant ed-ucation of a society in the fi eld of intentional practic-ing regular physical activity, e.g. in a form of healthy training and more effective ways of changing a lifestyle whose aim will be a care about health and a good psy-chical and physical condition. The diagnosis like this, in the reference to a young generation, is necessary to assess a present and future state of a society’s physical activity in order to determine the directions and aims of its promotion.

Conclusions

1. A caloric expense of everyday (habitual) activity in the women who are irregularly active in their ordi-nary week was 2521.70 kcal on average. Assuming that this value covers all kinds of undertaken ac-tivities, including also those that can be qualifi ed as physical ones, it is insuffi cient in the context of health care needs.

2. The total caloric cost, covering the same activities, in the second group of the examined women who undertake a regular activity is almost twice higher (4887.79 kcal), which is an effect of other lifestyle in the fi eld of physical activity

3. A leisure activity of the examined women which cov-ers both passive and active physical activities and in the case of the women who are regularly active, it also includes their intellectual effort in the total ca-loric cost per week. In the group of those irregularly active it was at the level of 827.95 kcal (67%) and in the group of the regularly active it was 1923.21 kcal (61%) on average. The above values probably refl ect the fact that all these women have different daily leisure time budgets and spend it in a different way.

4. In the group of the irregularly active women the number of calories burnt in their physical activity (a physical effort) was 574.40 kcal, which consti-tuted 69% of the caloric cost of their leisure activity, and for those who are regularly active the caloric cost is twice higher – 1396.00 kcal (73%). In both cases it is higher than the value of an energetic cost accompanying a passive activity.

5. While comparing a caloric expense of a physical weekly leisure activity of the researched women with the Paffenbarger’s assumptions, it is neces-sary to state that in both groups (those irregularly

Fig. 3. The percentage of meeting the recommendations of a weekly volume a physical activity done by women irregularly (I) and regularly physically active (II)

34%

66%

Group I

84%

16%

Group II

Completedpart

Not completed part


– 78 –

and regularly active) it does not meet the recom-mendations for a healthy conduct. In the fi rst group the difference between a real and a recommended

cost is signifi cant and reaches 66% and in the sec-ond group is relatively small and equals only 16.


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– 81 –

CHANGES IN SOMATIC AND MOTOR DEVELOPMENT IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS IN THE YEARS

1980–1988 AND IN 2000

ZMIANY W ROZWOJU SOMATYCZNYM I MOTORYCZNYM U DZIECI I MŁODZIEŻY

W LATACH 1980–1988 I W ROKU 2000

Bartłomiej Sokołowski*, Maria Chrzanowska**

***Dr, Department of Physiotherapy, University School of Physical Education in Cracow, Poland***Prof., Department of Anthropology, University School of Physical Education in Cracow, Poland

Key words: Cracow children and adolescents, physical development, secular trendsSłowa kluczowe: dzieci i młodzież krakowska, rozwój fizyczny, trendy sekularne

Aim of the work. Comparison of body height and weight and the development of selected motor abilities in

children and adolescents from Cracow population on the basis of examinations performed from 1980 through 1988 and in 2000.

Material and methods. The work includes materials collected by the teams of researchers from the Depart-ment of Anthropology and Anatomy, University School of Physical Education in Cracow while implementing “The Cracow Child 2000” project and during former examinations in the years 1980–1988. Results for age groups of 8–16 years were taken into consideration. Body height and weight got examined as well as the results of motor fitness tests: standing broad jump, sit-ups from the lying position for 30 s, and the sit and reach test. The values of arithmetic means were compared and the significance of their differences was calculated.

Results and conclusions. The girls and boys examined in 2000 are characterised by higher body height and weight when compared to the ones tested in the years 1980 through 1988. In the tests of explosive strength of lower extremities, flexibility and dynamic strength of abdominal muscles lower results were achieved by the examined in 2000. Only in the test of abdominal muscles in younger school age, the contemporary teenagers were better. Among children and adolescents from Cracow population, there occurred a tendency to achieve higher indexes of morphological development accompanied by lower motor abilities.

Cel pracy. Porównanie wysokości i masy ciała oraz rozwoju wybranych zdolności motorycznych dzieci i mło-dzieży populacji krakowskiej na podstawie badań przeprowadzonych w latach 1980–1988 i w roku 2000.

Materiał i metody. W pracy wykorzystano materiały zebrane przez pracowników Zakładu Antropologii i Anatomii Akademii Wychowania Fizycznego w Krakowie podczas realizacji projektu „Dziecko Krakowskie 2000” i wcześniejszych badań w latach 1980–1988. Wzięto pod uwagę wyniki dla grup wiekowych 8–16 lat. Uwzględniono wysokość i masę ciała oraz wyniki testów motorycznych: skoku w dal z miejsca, siadów z leżenia tyłem w 30 s i skłonów tułowia w przód. Porównano wartości średnich arytmetycznych i obliczono ich istotność.

Wyniki i wnioski. Dziewczęta i chłopcy badani w roku 2000 charakteryzują się większą wysokością ciała i większą masą ciała w porównaniu do swoich rówieśników badanych w latach 1980–1988. W próbach siły eksplozywnej kończyn dolnych, gibkości i siły dynamicznej mięśni brzucha gorsze wyniki osiągali badani w roku 2000. Jedynie w teście mięśni brzucha w młodszym wieku szkolnym lepsza była młodzież współczesna. Wśród dzieci i młodzieży populacji krakowskiej ujawniła się tendencja do osiągania wyższych wskaźników rozwoju mor-fologicznego, przy jednoczesnym obniżeniu zdolności motorycznych.



Bartłomiej Sokołowski, Maria Chrzanowska

– 82 –

Introduction

Biological and physical development of children and adolescents has long been the subject of researchers’ interest in many countries. The number of works in the fi eld is so large that it would be impossible to quote them within the frames of this paper. Also in Poland studies of the issue have a tradition reaching the be-ginnings of the 20th century [1, 2]. Many of the elabo-rations were developed in the ‘60s and ‘70s when the phenomenon of secular trends in the context of social and economic differences was presented [3–11]. In that period, as well as in the ‘80s, a similarity of so-matic development and motor fi tness was observed [12–16].

However, later studies indicated a different tenden-cy in the intergenerational variability, i.e. disparate di-rections of changes in somatic and motor development, defi ned as “scissors opening” [17– 24].

A considerable contribution into the research of the level and dynamic of somatic and functional features development was made by the University School of Physical Education in Cracow [25– 35].

On the basis of longitudinal and cross-sectional studies there were constructed tables and centile charts of high diagnostic values. Developmental norms of so-matic and motor fi tness characteristics were worked out in different time intervals by regional or national research centres.

In 1980 the scientists of the Unit of Anthropology and Anatomy at the University School of Physical Education in Cracow started a large scale long-term studies (last-ing till 1992) of children from schools located in Nowa Huta, one of the districts in Cracow.

After 20 years, in 2000 the workers of the Unit per-formed cross-sectional studies of a random cohort of children and adolescents in Cracow. In both research series the level of development of somatic and motor characteristics was estimated.

The aim of the paper is then an attempt to fi nd out whether there exist differences in the level of somatic and motor development in boys and girls from Cracow population examined contemporarily, i.e. in 2000 and the ones examined in 1980–1992 and, if they exist, to assess their intensity and diversifi cation directions. Such investigation can also allow verifi cation of the the-sis claiming that contemporary adolescents are char-acterised by a better morphological development but lower motor fi tness when compared to their peers of the previous years.

Research material and methods

The project called “The Cracow Child 2000” included 2093 girls and 2409 boys aged 4–20 from four Cracow districts: Śródmieście, Krowodrza, Podgórze and Nowa Huta. All types of schools were considered. The exam-ined were selected with two-stage draw by ballot box method with no returning. Twenty two somatic features were measured as well as motor fi tness tests contained in the European Tests of Physical Fitness.

In 1980 the examination included all children from the fi rst classes of preliminary schools located in Mistrzejowice – a part of Nowa Huta amounting at 360 girls and 460 boys, 820 in total. The longitudinal stud-ies got preformed annually for the following 10 years. Nineteen somatic features were measured and eight motor fi tness tests contained in the International Tests of Physical Fitness were conducted.

This work only included research results of those age groups which consisted of suffi cient number of people, i.e. 8–16 years old. Body height and weight got taken into consideration as well as results of the motor tests that were identically performed in both studies i.e. standing broad jump (explosive strength of lower extremities), sit-ups from the lying position for 30 s (dynamic strength of abdominal muscles) and the sit and reach test (fl exibility).

For the needs of this paper the measure data ob-tained in longitudinal studies were treated as cross-sectional data.

The values of arithmetic means of body height, weight and motor tests obtained within the frames of the Child of Cracow 2000 project were compared with the means of children examined in 1980–1988 and the differences signifi cance was calculated .

Research results

The information presented in Table 1 indicates that both boys and girls examined in 2000 were taller than the ones examined in 1980–1988 in all age groups. All the differences are statistically signifi cant.

A similar regularity can be observed at the compari-son of body weight (Table 2). Children of both sexes ex-amined later are characterised by higher weight, how-ever, at the age of 16 years the differences are small.

Results of motor abilities tests are different. Girls examined in 2000 in the standing broad jump got much worse results. The differences are statistically signifi -cant. A similar tendency, but less intensifi ed, was no-ticed in boys from the same cohort (Table 3).

Changes in somatic and motor development in children and adolescents in the years 1980–1988 and in 2000

– 83 –

Table 1. Body height

YearBoys

Difference AgeGirls

DifferenceN x SD N x SD

2000 133 129.50 5.753.18*** 8

140 129.50 6.103.96***

1980 460 126.32 5.38 360 125.54 6.00

2000 194 134.00 5.971.78*** 9

143 133.90 5.482.64***

1981 456 132.22 5.52 358 131.26 6.00

2000 126 140.90 6.363.54*** 10

115 139.90 6.853.03***

1982 450 137.36 5.84 354 136.87 6.47

2000 138 145.90 6.913.71*** 11

154 145.50 6.692.88***

1983 435 142.19 6.27 352 142.62 6.99

2000 198 150.80 7.362.98* 12

200 152.80 6.823.86***

1984 432 147.82 6.64 350 148.94 7.44

2000 143 158.30 8.853.88*** 13

175 158.70 6.503.50***

1985 430 154.42 7.44 350 155.20 6.96

2000 262 165.70 8.293.78*** 14

239 161.60 6.055.26***

1986 420 161.92 8.20 346 156.34 6.18

2000 188 171.80 7.772.98*** 15

167 164.00 6.192.39***

1987 420 168.82 7.70 346 161.61 5.71

2000 233 174.90 6.871.57** 16

132 164.60 5.721.62*

1988 348 173.33 6.85 219 162.98 5.73According to t°-Student the differences are: significant at the level * p ≤ 0.05. **p ≤ 0.01. ***p ≤ 0.001

Table 2. Body weight

YearBoys

Difference AgeGirls


2000 133 28.30 5.702.20*** 8

140 27.80 5.542.10***

1980 460 26.10 4.35 360 25.70 4.37

2000 194 31.00 7.172.78*** 9

143 29.90 5.842.32***

1981 456 28.22 4.80 358 27.58 5.05

2000 126 35.40 7.974.27*** 10

115 34.50 8.363.76***

1982 450 31.13 5.50 354 30.74 5.80

2000 138 38.80 8.703.67*** 11

154 37.20 7.792.05**

1983 435 35.13 6.73 352 35.15 6.71

2000 198 41.80 9.862.98*** 12

200 43.00 7.932.78***

1984 432 38.82 7.48 350 40.22 7.82

2000 143 47.60 10.794.16*** 13

175 47.00 8.843.17**

1985 430 43.44 8.32 350 44.83 8.45

2000 262 52.80 10.453.38*** 14

239 51.00 9.411.93**

1986 420 49.42 9.28 346 49.07 7.85

2000 188 59.40 11.783.18*** 15

167 55.00 7.932.54***

1987 420 56.22 9.42 346 52.46 7.97

2000 233 63.70 11.041.99* 16

132 54.80 7.250.63



– 84 –

Table 3. Standing broad jump

YearBoys

Difference AgeGirls


2000 132 115.60 18.87–11.60*** 8

140 105.20 17.11–16.10***

1980 460 127.20 19.00 360 121.30 17.70

2000 194 128.20 23.92–14.30*** 9

142 119.90 21.97–18.30***

1981 456 142.50 15.14 358 138.20 14.83

2000 126 139.10 21.70–9.40*** 10

113 129.20 20.82–15.20***

1982 450 148.50 17.10 354 144.40 15.88

2000 137 149.30 22.07–7.50*** 11

154 138.40 20.51–17.73***

1983 435 156.80 16.80 352 156.13 16.25

2000 197 153.20 23.94–5.38** 12

196 144.80 20.08–15.30***

1984 432 158.58 17.10 350 160.10 16.80

2000 143 169.60 23.55–8.12*** 13

175 154.00 22.85–19.11***

1985 430 177.72 18.41 350 173.11 17.11

2000 262 181.70 26.15–4.02* 14

231 156.20 21.47–18.98***

1986 420 185.72 20.14 346 175.18 16.97

2000 188 193.90 22.89–3.34 15

165 162.80 25.06–11.98***

1987 420 197.24 21.93 346 174.78 17.69

2000 230 199.80 25.11–10.33*** 16

131 164.00 23.57–12.28***


Table 4. Sit and reach

YearBoys

Difference AgeGirls


2000 124 47.10 6.90–1.26* 8

130 48.30 5.56–2.04***

1980 460 48.36 5.72 360 50.34 5.18

2000 192 46.90 6.24–3.30*** 9

143 49.50 5.55–2.18***

1981 456 50.20 5.60 358 51.68 5.28

2000 124 46.90 6.05–3.82*** 10

115 49.60 7.06–3.32***

1982 450 50.72 6.12 354 52.92 6.24

2000 136 48.10 6.14–1.72** 11

154 50.30 6.61–3.46***

1983 435 49.82 6.04 352 53.76 6.30

2000 197 46.70 6.35–3.18*** 12

198 53.10 6.53–2.22***

1984 432 49.88 4.10 350 55.32 6.74

2000 143 47.90 8.10–2.41*** 13

175 54.60 7.94–2.02**

1985 430 50.31 6.35 350 56.62 6.22

2000 262 48.60 7.95–4.58*** 14

234 54.10 7.14–4.69***

1986 420 53.18 6.92 346 58.79 6.41

2000 188 51.50 9.07–2.06** 15

167 56.10 7.90–3.78***

1987 420 53.56 7.45 346 59.88 6.31

2000 230 54.30 8.34–2.25** 16

131 58.40 7.83–2.71***



– 85 –

Table 5. Sit-ups

YearBoys

Difference AgeGirls


2000 128 18.10 3.702.90*** 8

136 17.10 3.262.74***

1980 460 15.20 4.20 360 14.36 4.18

2000 194 19.60 3.781.66*** 9

142 18.10 3.331.72***

1981 456 17.94 4.22 358 16.38 4.49

2000 125 21.60 4.631.22** 10

115 19.50 3.441.12*

1982 450 20.38 4.33 354 18.38 4.75

2000 136 22.90 4.06–0.12 11

153 21.30 3.19–0.05

1983 435 23.02 3.99 352 21.35 3.99

2000 198 22.80 4.47–1.92*** 12

197 21.90 3.86–0.24

1984 432 24.72 4.02 350 22.14 4.06

2000 142 24.60 4.33–1.39*** 13

174 22.00 4.34–0.82*

1985 430 25.99 3.98 350 22.82 3.86

2000 261 25.00 3.70–3.08*** 14

228 21.00 3.47–3.14***

1986 420 28.08 3.76 346 24.14 4.16

2000 188 25.10 4.19–4.86*** 15

160 21.30 3.78–3.32***

1987 420 29.96 3.74 346 24.62 4.13

2000 230 25.00 4.10–5.77*** 16

130 23.10 3.55–1.94***


Flexibility was measured by the sit and reach test and both boys and girls examined in 2000 achieved worse results than those examined in 1980–1988 in all age groups (Table 3).

In the abdomen dynamical strength test (Table 5) in boys and girls aged 8, 9 and 10 the number of sit-ups done within 30 seconds is higher in children examined in 2000. However, from the age of 11 years there ap-pears an increasing advantage of those examined in 1980–1988. At the age of 14, 15 and 16 the differences are considerable, particularly in boys.

Discussion

The studies over the phenomenon of body weight and height secular trend show its different intensity in Poland, depending on a region and social structure of the examined population. The infl uence of economic conditions on physical development of children and adolescents should also be taken into consideration. A majority of researchers observed a continuous ten-dency for an increase of body height and weight.

The results of our paper also indicate higher values of the basic somatic characteristics in contemporary

adolescents. In all age groups both boys and girls ex-amined in 2000 are taller than those examined in 1980–1988. The greatest difference for boys (3.88 cm) occurs at the age of 13, and the smallest one at 16 (1.57 cm). For girls the greatest difference takes place at the age of 14 (5.26 cm), and the smallest at 16 (1.62 cm).

The same trend refers to body weight. Differences amount from 1.99 to 4.27 kg in boys, whereas in girls they are a bit smaller (from 1.93 to 3.76 kg) and at the age of 16 the difference (0.63kg) is not signifi cant statis-tically. Przewęda and Dobosz [17], who obtained similar results, explained the fact with a fashion for a slim girl-ish fi gure. The process of getting slimmer in girls after puberty period was also observed by Chrzanowska et al. [36] when comparing two random cohorts from Cracow population examined in 1983 and 2000.

Results of studies on intergenerational tendencies of motor abilities development are not clear. Bocheńska [9] observed a unity of morphological and motor fi t-ness changes on the basis of data of 1938 and 1962. Przewęda and Trześniowski [15] and Charzewski and Przewęda [16] while examining Polish adolescents in the ‘70s and ‘80s noticed a motor development pro-gression. Similar results were obtained by Zaradkiewicz


– 86 –

[37] in relation to the population of the middle-east macro-region in the years 1979–1989. Dudkiewicz [38] compared the level of somatic features and motor abili-ties development in children and adults examined in 1971 and 1986 from the Kieleckie region; the research showed a linear development of somatic features and physical fi tness. However, results of later studies in-dicated the phenomenon of ‘scissors opening’ which bases on a better and better development of somatic features accompanied by a decrease of motor abilities. Przewęda and Dobosz [17] revealed the phenomenon in children and adolescents on a national scale while comparing the results of auxological picture assess-ment in 1979, 1989 and 1999. Bronikowski [18] found the phenomenon in Poznań children examined in 1979 through 1999. The alarming fall of physical fi tness was raised by Raczek [19] on the basis of results of studies performed in 1965, 1975 and 1985 including subjects aged 8–18. Żak and Szopa [20] confi rmed regression of fi tness in Cracow adolescents who were examined in 1983 in comparison with norms of 1973–1974. Mleczko and Ozimek [22] also demonstrated unfavourable ten-dencies in development of motor fi tness in Cracow pop-ulation aged 15–19. The syndrome of ‘open scissors’ in Polish students was described by Pilicz [23] while ana-lyzing studies results of 1954–1979, whereas Mleczko and Januszewski [24] determined the direction of changes in Cracow students in the years 1972–2008.

This paper confi rms the thesis of different tenden-cies in somatic features and motor abilities develop-ment. Particularly considerable differences unfavour-ing the 2000 population were observed in girls at the standing broad jump; in boys the differences are slightly lower. Flexibility measurement also indicated a lower level of the feature development in contempo-rary adolescents; the differences occur consistently in both sexes aged 8–16. Different results obtained in in-dividual age ranges at the static strength of abdominal muscles tests are diffi cult to be interpreted. In boys and girls aged 8–10 better results were achieved by the ex-amined in 2000; at the age of 12–16 in boys and 14–16 in girls an advantage of those examined in 1980–1988 begins to be more and more visible. It can be assumed that at the younger school age there emerged a strong infl uence of a better somatic development in contem-porary children. While getting older, the strength, being

the ability only slightly conditioned genetically [31], is infl uenced by environmental factors, especially physi-cal activity which in 2000 was weaker than in the ‘80s. Changes of body build proportions and different stages of puberty processes during this period of ontogenesis might have infl uenced the results. Different commit-ment of the examined into the implementation of the diffi cult tests should also be taken into account.

There are many reasons for regression of motor abilities. Przewęda [39] claims that in order to develop one’s motor activity, fi rstly they must want to do so; whereas currently there can be observed a decrease of motivation for physical activity in young generation. The Internet and computer games consume too much time. Children and adolescents spend many hours in closed rooms in sitting position without any movements and it leads to atrophy of muscles and disturbances of physi-ological processes. Pańczyk [40] emphasizes isolation from natural environment which also infl uences nega-tively the development of young organisms. The teach-ers and peers’ pressure at school affect mental health resulting in frequent frustrations and depressions.

Przewęda [39] suggests working out such a model of education that could prepare children for later self-control of their physical condition. Highly promoting the idea, it should be remembered that its implementation must be preceded by deep changes in the social con-sciousness.

Results summary and conclusions

1. Girls and boys examined in 2000 are characterised by higher body height and weight in comparison with their peers examined in 1980–1988.

2. In the tests of explosive strength of lower extremi-ties, fl exibility and abdominal dynamic strength low-er results were obtained by the examined in 2000. Only in the test of abdominal muscles, boys and girls examined in 2000 were better at the younger school age.

3. In the light of the obtained results in children and adolescents from Cracow population, a tendency appeared for achieving better indexes of morpho-logical development accompanied by lowering of the motor abilities level.


– 87 –

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[27] Gołąb S. et al.: Normy rozwoju sprawności ruchowej dzieci i młodzieży z Nowej Huty.Wydawnictwo Skryptowe, Kraków, AWF, 1980; 11.

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[29] Gołąb S et al.: Biologiczne i społeczne uwarunkowania zmienności przebiegu rozwoju dzieci i młodzieży z Nowej Huty (wyniki badań ciągłych). Wydawnictwo Monografi cz-ne, Kraków, AWF, 1993; 15.

[30] Gołąb S (ed.): Normy rozwojowe. Aspekty teoretyczne, implikacje praktyczne. Referaty z IX Europejskiego Kon-gresu Anatomicznego 1992. Zeszyty Naukowe, Kraków, AWF, 1994; 68.

[31] Szopa J, Mleczko E, Żak S: Podstawy antropomotoryki. Warszawa – Kraków, PWN, 1996.

[32] Szopa J: W poszukiwaniu struktury motoryczności: analiza czynnikowa cech somatycznych, funkcjonalnych i prób sprawności fi zycznej u chłopców i dziewcząt w wieku 8–19 lat. Wydawnictwo Monografi czne, Kraków, AWF, 1998; 35.

[33] Chrzanowska M et al.: Dziecko Krakowskie 2000. Po-ziom rozwoju biologicznego dzieci i młodzieży miasta Krakowa. Wydawnictwo Monografi czne, Kraków, AWF, 2002; 19.

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[35] Mleczko E: Przebieg i uwarunkowania rozwoju funkcjo-nalnego dzieci krakowskich między 7 a 14 rokiem życia. Wydawnictwo Monografi czne, Kraków, AWF, 1991; 44.



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[36] Chrzanowska M. et al.: Trendy w otłuszczeniu ciała oraz występowanie nadwagi i otyłości u dzieci i młodzieży Krakowa w ostatnim trzydziestoleciu. Pediatria Polska, 2002; 2: 113–120.

[37] Zaradkiewicz T: Pokoleniowe różnice w sprawności fi zycznej uczniów i uczennic z makroregionu środkowo-wschodniego. Wychowanie Fizyczne i Sport,1999; 3: 45–53.

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A SIMPLE METHOD OF ASSESSMENT OF ENERGY EXPENDITURE OF

LOW-IMPACT AEROBIC EXERCISES

PROSTA OCENA WYDATKU ENERGETYCZNEGO AEROBIKU TYPU LOW-IMPACT

Wanda Pilch*, Łukasz Tota**, Szczepan Wiecha**, Dorota Ambroży***

*** Dr, Physiology and Biochemistry Unit, Institute of Human Physiology, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland

*** MSc, Physiology and Biochemistry Unit, Institute of Human Physiology, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland

*** Dr, Theory and Methodology of Gymnastics Department, University School of Physical Education, Cracow,Poland

Key words: aerobic, energetic expenditure, heart rate Słowa kluczowe: aerobik, wydatek energetyczny, częstość skurczów serca

Aim of the work. Estimating the character, intensity and energy expenditure in young women during one hour of aerobic low-impact training.

Material and methods. The exercise ability of ten women was measured as well as threshold physiologi-cal parameters, which determine adaptation of the organism to the physical strain. The exercise test on the laboratory track was performed until subject’s refusal. During the test maximal heart rate (HR) and maximal oxygen consumption (V

. O2 max) were measured. In the second stage of the study, during one hour of aero-bics exercises, the dynamic changes of HR were observed using the sport-testers produced by Polar Electro Corporation. To estimate energy expenditure indirect calorimetric method was used. To use this method, one minute absorption of oxygen has to be measured, than by knowing caloric equivalent (which is 5 kcal for one liter of oxygen) it is possible to measure the energy output in women during aerobic.

Results and conclusions. According to energy expenditure during one hour of aerobics low-impact (308 kcal) it may be classified as light work.

Cel pracy. Określenie charakteru i intensywności wysiłku, a także wydatku energetycznego poniesionego przez młode kobiety podczas godzinnych zajęć aerobiku typu low-impact.

Materiał i metody. Przeprowadzono ocenę możliwości wysiłkowych badanych 10 kobiet oraz progowych wielkości wskaźników fizjologicznych określających adaptację organizmu do wysiłku. Przeprowadzono na bieżni laboratoryjny test wysiłkowy ze stopniowo narastającym obciążeniem, wykonywany do odmowy. W trakcie testu oznaczano m.in. maksymalny rytm pracy serca (HR) oraz maksymalne pochłanianie tlenu (V

. O2 max). W drugim etapie obserwowano dynamikę zmian HR w czasie godzinnych zajęć aerobiku, stosując w tym celu sporttestery firmy Polar Electro. W celu oznaczenia wydatku energetycznego posłużono się metodą kalorymetrii pośredniej, która polega na pomiarze minutowego poboru tlenu w trakcie ocenianego wysiłku. Znając równoważnik kalo-ryczny, który dla jednego litra tlenu odpowiada 5 kcal wydatkowanej energii, możliwe jest wyrażenie wydatku energetycznego poniesionego przez badane kobiety podczas zajęć aerobiku w kcal.

Wyniki i wnioski. Na podstawie przeprowadzonych pomiarów i porównań stwierdzono, że wydatek ener-getyczny o średniej wartości 308, jaki podczas godzinnych zajęć z aerobiku low-impact poniosły młode kobiety o średniej wysokości, przeciętnej masie ciała oraz małym otłuszczeniu, można zaliczyć do pracy lekkiej.



Wanda Pilch, Łukasz Tota, Szczepan Wiecha, Dorota Ambroży

– 90 –

Introduction

The modern kind of aerobics involves the whole body, and the correctly performed exercises increase the level of one’s physical fi tness as well as tolerance to exertion. The term "exertion abilities" means the unit of the psychophysical properties of the body which en-able the performance of certain exercises connected with the physical load; the term ‘exertion tolerance’ determines the body’s ability to perform the physical work from the moment the discomfort appears to the moment when the need to interrupt occurs. Aerobics is a system of physical exercises including the intensity, which require the big amount of oxygen to be delivered to a certain body. Looking at the intensity of aerobic, we can divide it into three parts: low-impact, hi-lo, hi-im-pact. These exercises enable the increase in exertion abilities as a result of fi tness and health training, based on the intense oxygen exchange. The modern aerobics is the strict co-ordination of the movement with music in time and space. Consecutive exercises should form harmony together with the music which, like dance, is a unique experience including movement for both the in-structor and the participants of the classes. Depending on the intended intensity of the exercises we use dif-ferent melodies. There are two increasing and two de-creasing phrases (depending on the pitch of the sound a phrase ends with) which are alternatively arranged in the musical theme. The phrase corresponds to a cho-reographical fi gure of eight (sequence), whereas the musical theme corresponds to a choreographic block [1]. The pace also changes depending on the advance-ment level of the group [2].

In the low-impact system, warming, strengthening, and calming elements can be distinguished I. Warming exercises: their aim is to prepare body for

more intense exercises in the main aerobics part. In this part we use basic steps repeated many times. Duration is about 5–10 min.

II. Main part, strengthening part. This part is con-structed from a sequence of movement combined into blocks. The aim of this part is to maintain con-stant pulse using different choreography. Duration is about 30–40 min.

III. Calming: we use some stretching exercises to calm down and relax the body.

The high frequency of the systoles results in a sub-stantial energetic effort and it increases the level of physical fi tness. The effi ciency of circulatory systems

and respiratory systems is considered to be the most important element of one’s fi tness which promotes health. An improvement in the cardiopulmonary function is conductive to the reduction of many cardiovascular diseases; it also enhances the ability to work and facili-tates the opposition to tiredness [3]. Cardiopulmonary fi tness is the ability of the system to deliver oxygen in amounts which are essential for taking up effective muscular work and prolonged physical activities. The effi cient functioning of cardiopulmonary system is im-portant for delivering oxygen and nutritional substances and removing unnecessary products of metabolism [4]. The aim of the research was to determine the character and intensity of the exertion as well as energy expen-diture among young women during an one-hour long low-impact aerobics classes.

Methodology of the research

10 women leading an active way of life took part in the research. Their anthropometrical indicators fi tted in the range for thin women aged 21–23 – Tab. 1 [5, 6].

Technology of performed measurements

The research was carried out in a gym and a physi-cal research classroom of Chair of Physiology and Biochemistry at University School of Physical Education in Cracow.

The program of the research included 2 types of tests: a laboratory exertion test in which the load has gradually increased until the moment of the subjec-tive feeling of inability to continue workout, as well as HR observation during aerobics exercises in the gym. Before the research was carried out, the basic biometri-cal parameters had been measured. The height of the bodies was measured by means of an anthropometre, whereas the mass of the bodies was taken with the help of an electronic scale Tanita, made in Japan.

The test started with 2-minutes long warm-up on a mechanical track with the speed of 6 km/h. The speed of the track’s movements was increased 1 km/h every 2 consecutive minutes. During the exertion, the frequen-cies of the systoles (HR) and the respiratory parameters such as V̇O2 (ml/kg), V̇O2 (l/min) were recorded. After fi nishing the exertion, parameters were also measured during 3 minutes of repose.

The second type of the research, the low-impact aerobics exercises, lasted for 70 minutes and the fol-lowing stages could be distinguished:

A simple method of assessment of energy expenditure of low-impact aerobic exercises

– 91 –

III stage – 10 minutes, (warm-up – simple exercises based on elementary steps),

III stage – 40 minutes, (choreographic routine), III stage – 15 minutes, (weight training of basic muscu-

lar groups), IV stage – 5 minutes, (relaxation part, stretching).

The dynamics of changes in the frequency of the systoles was measured with a versatile device Acurex plus by Finnish company Polar-Electro. Microcomputers (sport-testers) make it possible to constantly monitor the heart’s work during each exertion. In the present research, the microcomputers were used during both track-tests and aerobics classes.

A computer program enabling the current monitor-ing of the results from a device by the Finnish company Medicro OY had been applied in the registration and analysis of the respiratory data. This device registers the respiratory parameters. The heart’s work was moni-tored, its average size at different phases of exercising was calculated and identical HR values during the track-test were compared in order to estimate the burning of calories from aerobics classes. The corresponding V̇O2 values were also recorded and they were subsequently accepted as adequate to the performed workout during 4 stages of aerobics. The time of individual phases as well as the adequate level of ̇VO2 made it possible to es-timate the global use of oxygen and, consequently, the

energy expenditure as well. It was also demonstrated how the marked V̇O2 values and HR measured during aerobics classes were shaped in relation to the maxi-mum values. In this way, the values of the measured parameters among the participants of the research and their potential abilities were received and presented.

The material included in this research is represent-ed by the results of 10 women – students of University School of Physical Education in Cracow who lead an active way of life most of the time. The average age of women taking part in the research amounted to 22.5 years, the height – 166.5 cm, whereas the body’s mass – 55.5 kg (Table 1).

Results

The frequency of the systoles (HR) during aerobics classes made it possible to trace the dynamics of changes of the heart’s work in particular stages of ex-ertion.

The biggest difference in the heart’s rhythm was recorded during the second part of aerobics classes (choreographic routine) in which the average HR count amounted to 143.6 beats per minute. The highest heart-beat at this stage was 192 beats per minute, whereas the lowest equalled 106 beats per minute (Table 2).

The lower intensity was observed in parts I and II of aerobics classes (warm-up and physical exercises)

Table 1. Somatic characteristics of the group

No. Age Body height [cm] Body mass[kg]

FAT[%]

1 24 177 56 25.0

2 22 160 49 20.5

3 23 176 59 24.5

4 22 163 60 33.5

5 25 170 64 30.0

6 22 159 49 21.5

7 21 168 50 21.5

8 22 162 55 26.5

9 22 158 45 17.0

10 22 172 68 38.0

x 22.5 166.5 55.5 25.8

SD 1.18 7.06 6.42 6.42


– 92 –

in which the lowest average heart count totalled 111.3 beats per minute and 107.3 beats per minute, whereas the highest average HR count amounted to 142.9 beats per minute (Table 2).

During the graded track test, the maximum values of the heart’s systoles and the minute consumption of

oxygen in global and relative frames were determined; the time of the race and the run distance were regis-tered. The highest relative value VO2 max equaled 50.0 ml/kg/min, whereas the lowest totalled 39.5 ml/kg/min. The average count of the examined group was 45.4 ml/kg/min. (Table 3).

Table 2. The average frequency of heart rate in different parts of the aerobic

No.I part II part III part IV part

max min max min max min max min

1 155 74 184 131 165 110 161 100

2 155 63 174 129 172 110 133 107

3 148 99 177 116 159 110 148 107

4 151 104 165 120 146 101 146 107

5 141 81 173 108 134 84 112 91

6 142 94 166 106 167 88 127 94

7 122 97 167 109 159 92 120 80

8 176 110 192 145 183 115 145 118

9 142 74 166 110 136 96 119 92

10 151 107 155 110 133 97 110 85

x 148,3 90,3 171,9 118,4 155,4 100,2 132,1 98,1

SD 13,74 16,16 10,58 12,81 17,36 10,70 17,27 11,74

Table 3. The maximal oxygen consumption and heart rate, time and distance during maximal aerobic test on a treadmill

No. V̇O2 max [ml/kg/

min] V̇O2 max[l/min] HRmax [sk/min] Time of run [min] Distance

[m]

1 50.0 2.8 209 16.9 2496

2 45.2 2.47 198 15.0 2350

3 44.2 2.57 194 16.3 2407

4 39.8 2.66 205 15.1 2353

5 39.5 2.58 199 14.0 2140

6 46.4 2.43 187 12.5 1825

7 49.4 2.64 199 15.0 2357

8 47.3 2.73 215 15.6 2466

9 48.5 2.50 187 15.0 2343

10 43.5 3.11 197 15.5 2455

x 45.38 2.65 199 15.09 2319.2

SD 3.7 0.19 8.88 1.20 199.83


– 93 –

The average values of the heart’s systoles’ fre-quency calculated from 70-minute low-impact fi tness classes are close to those received during the graded test with the race speed of 7 km/h (Table 4).

To determine the diffi culty of the work carried out by the examined women during aerobics, the bal-

ance sheet including the results from the track and during the aerobics classes were compared. HRmax and V̇O2 max V̇O2 max obtained during the track at-tempt with the average frequency of the heart’s systo-les and corresponding oxygen consumption were com-pared (Table 5). The results suggest that the exercised

Table 4. Comparison of heart rate on each stage of aerobics with the results obtained a speed run on a treadmill.

No.HR [1/min] V [km/h]

HRmaxHR1 HR2 HR3 HR4 V1 V2 V3 V4

1 128.3 151.4 135.7 129.5 6.5 7.0 6.5 6.5 209

2 111.3 157.1 131.8 121.0 6.5 8.0 7.0 6.5 198

3 130.2 149.4 133.0 117.4 8.0 9.0 8.0 6.0 194

4 130.6 140.0 124.1 125.5 6.5 7.0 6.5 6.5 205

5 122.1 133.4 109.1 102.0 6.5 6.5 6.0 6.0 199

6 127.8 141.1 121.2 115.7 6.5 7.5 6.5 6.5 187

7 117.9 133.9 121.3 104.3 6.5 7.0 6.5 6.0 199

8 142.9 164.4 142.0 129.3 7.5 8.5 7.5 6.5 215

9 109.7 132.9 107.3 104.3 6.5 7.5 6.0 6.0 187

10 131.3 132.2 118.6 94.5 7.0 7.0 6.5 6.0 197

x 125.2 143.5 124.4 114.3 6.8 7.5 6.7 6.29 199

SD 10.9 11.40 11.28 12.37 0.53 0.78 0.63 0.26 8.88

Table 5. Comparison of VO2 max and HR during aerobic, with maximal aerobic test performed on a treadmill

No.Aerobics Treadmill

% V̇O2 max %HRmax V̇O2 max HRmax

1 22.9 65.12 50.0 209

2 35.1 65.77 45.2 198

3 50.5 68.27 44.2 194

4 20.0 63.35 39.8 205

5 12.0 58.57 39.5 199

6 22.7 67.57 46.4 187

7 23.0 59.92 49.4 199

8 48.5 67.22 47.3 215

9 29.0 60.67 48.5 187

10 27.9 60.45 43.5 197

x 29.16 63.69 45.38 199

SD 12.3 3.57 3.7 8.88


– 94 –

work can be clasifi ed as a light one, because it was calculated that demand for oxygen totaled on average 29.16% V̇O2 max. The average value HRmax for aero-bics classes amounted to 63.7% HRmax obtained on track (Table 5).

During the low-impact aerobics classes, the par-ticipants burnt off 308.4 ± 113.2 kcal on average. The span of the result was considerable and it totaled as much as 372 kcal. The highest value was 493 kcal, the lowest 121 kcal. The analysis of the cost of work at particular parts of classes points to the fact that the biggest energy expenditure was reached in part II and it equaled 232.6 kcal, whereas the lowest was reached in part IV – 9.67 kcal. In both fi rst and second examples the individual span of results was very high: SD – 79.26 kcal and SD – 6.19 kcal (Table 6).

Discussion

The change of chemical energy included in energy substrates into mechanical work carried out by a person takes place with a specifi c effi ciency. The consumption of 1 litre of oxygen with RQ equal to 1 causes the production of energy corresponding to 5 kcal. The prolonged physical exertion executed below the anaerobic threshold is powered at the expense of changes during which most of the energy is freed from oxidation of fatty acids, glucose and amino acids. The sort of the used substrate of oxygen changes is de-

pendent upon the intensity and lasting of the exertion as well as metabolic preferences of the muscle tissue. The energy used to move comes from the complicated chemical processes [11].

The high level of oxygen-related metabolic abilities is needed not only for people actively involved in ath-letic sport. Few people realise that the growth of maxi-mum speed of oxygen-related metabolism of muscles enables the elderly or sick to go for a walk without much exertion and function everyday in the society. In case of the effective functioning of oxygen supply mechanism, the resynthesis of high-energy phosphogenic com-pounds and glycogen takes place, which later results in symptoms of tiredness [12, 13].

Physical exertion can be divided into hard, very hard, moderate and light exertion depending on energy expenditure [14]. Light exertion is characterised by en-ergy expenditure which does not exceed 5 kcal/min, whereas hard is defi ned as even exceeding 10 kcal/min [7]. Having in mind those parameters, it can be ob-served that exertion after 70 minutes of the low-impact aerobics exericses totaled not much than 4 kcal/min. This result is characteristic for light kinds of exertion. Nevertheless, it must be highlighted that differentation of energy expenditure of the participants fl uctuated be-tween 121 and 493 kcal, but it did not exceed the mod-erate kind of exertion [14].

According to Kubica [7], energy expenditure in dif-ferent sports can be subdivided into groups with light,

Table 6. Cost of work (kcal) during low-impact aerobic

No. I part II part III part IV part Total

1 15 284 40.5 7.5 347

2 15 288 67 10 380

3 64.5 314 97.5 17.5 493

4 15 120 15 5.0 155

5 10 100 8.25 2.75 121

6 12.5 240 19 5 276

7 25 180 37.5 6.5 249

8 20 338 30 22.5 410

9 28 228 45 12.5 313

10 28.5 234 37.5 7.5 337

x 26.35 232.6 39.72 9.67 308.35

SD 19.37 79.26 26.34 6.19 113.22


– 95 –

moderate, hard and very hard character. The foundation of such division is connected with the number of kcal which are burnt off or the oxygen taken. The exertion which was reached by the examined participants of the low-impact aerobics classes corresponds to the mod-erate work. It can be further compared to golf classes where the average energy expenditure amounts to 300 kcal/h. Some of the participants with higher average number of the burnt kcal could compare their exertion to the race walking where the average exertion equals 550 kcal/h.

Jaskólski [14] characterizes sport classes in terms of energy expenditure expressed in KJ/min in his work. The numbers gained by the participants of the study fi t into the range of recreational activities 14.6–32.7 KJ/min. These results can be compared to e.g. canoe-ing classes. He also presents energy expenditure in different sports depending on the body mass and the burnt kcal/min. The average body mass of the exam-ined totalled 55 kg, and the number of the burnt kcal/min: 4.4 kcal/min. Therefore, according to Jaskólski, the reached exertion expenditure could be compared to dancing classes (4.8 kcal/min) or, for people below the average during the classes, to recreational cycling (3.2 kcal/min).

By defi ning the size of the workout, Christensen makes a reference not only to the number of kcal and, consequently, the value of VO2, but also to the frequen-cy of the heart’s work. The average HR reached by the low-impact aerobics classes’ participants points to the average load of the system. Taking into consideration wide discrepancies of this parameter between the exer-cises, we conclude that among people with HR higher than 125 beats per minute during the research, the load was considerable [7].

Aerobics is classifi ed as a modern gymnastic form and defi ned as a form of exercises carried out to the accompaniment of music. It requires from the exercis-ing people not only good fi tness but also co-ordination of movements. Taking into account the energy expen-diture of a dancer during particular dances, it undoubt-edly depends on the character of the dance. The similar correlation can be found during fi tness classes.

As it has already been mentioned, nowadays there are many types of aerobics classes. Considering their

energy expenditure, it should be taken into consider-ation that they differ in respect of pace, character, and length of classes (what considerably varies them).

In the research done by Pilch et al. [10], the energy expenditure of the low-impact aerobics classes was put to simple assessment. The results of the research high-light the fact that taking into consideration the workout, this type of aerobics is more demanding than the low-impact one. The participants of the study burnt off 510 kcal on average with HR 148 beats per minute. There was also a substantially higher consumption of oxygen: 1.71 l/min.

Judging from the aerobic effort point of view, the measurements taken during low-impact aerobics class-es, conducted according to the schedule in our own research, proved beyond doubt the adequacy of termi-nology, since the pulse rate of examined participants reached 70% of maximal pulse level.

Quite big differences in the obtained values of the parameters demonstrate personal differences in exer-tion ability levels, as well as co-ordination and one’s ‘attitude to exercises’. The differences in the obtained values point to the fact that there is a necessity to look generally at the number of the burnt calories during aer-obics classes. This results from presented research. In the group of 10 people the differences in the obtained energy expenditure values during the same classes are so considerable that it can be claimed that the par-ticipants’ attitude and reliability have a great impact on those values.

Conclusions

1. The analysis of HR and VO2 results obtained dur-ing the graded exertion test ‘until refusal’ will make it possible to estimate the energy expenditure of other exercises during which the exertion pulse is marked.

2. During the low-impact aerobics classes the par-ticipants incurred energy expenditure amounting to 308 kcal on average.

3. The obtained results make it possible to suppose that the low-impact aerobics is the exertion with the oxygen character of metabolic changes.


– 96 –

[1] Oleksy-Mierzejewska D: Fitness – teoretyczne i metodycz-ne podstawy prowadzenia zajęć. Wydanie Monografi czne, Katowice, 2002.

[2] De Angelis M, Vinciguerra G, Gasbarri A, Pacitti C. Oxygen uptake, heart rate and blood lactate concentration diuring a normal training session of an aerobic dance. Class J Appl Physiol 1998; 78 (2): 121–127.

[3] Cooper K: Aerobics. New York, Bantom Books, 1968. [4] Grant S, Armstrong G, Sutherland R. et al.: Physiological

and psychological responses to a university fi tness ses-sion. Br J Sports Med 1993; 27 (3): 162–166.

[5] Chrzanowska M: Biologiczne i społeczne determinanty rozwoju podskórnej tkanki tłuszczowej u dzieci i młodzieży. Wydawnictwo Monografi czne, Kraków, AWF, 1992; 49.

[6] Szopa J: Zmienność ontogenetyczna, zróżnicowanie środowiskowe oraz genetyczne uwarunkowania rozwoju komponentów ciała w populacji wielkomiejskiej w wieku 7–62 lat. Wydawnictwo Monografi czne, Kraków, AWF, 1985; 22.

[7] Kubica R: Podstawy fi zjologii pracy i wydolności fi zycznej. Wydawnictwo Skryptowe, Kraków, AWF, 1999.


[8] Pilch W: Ocena wysiłku tancerzy podczas symulacji zawodów tańca towarzyskiego w konkurencji tańców latynoamerykańskich; in II Międzynarodowa Konferencja Naukowa „Zdrowie: istota, diagnostyka i strategie zdro-wotne w warunkach nauczania, pracy i sportu”, Krynica Górska, 13–15.11.2003.

[9] Berry MJ, Cline CC, Berry CB, Davis M: A comparison between two forms of aerobic dance and treadmill running. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 1992; 24(8): 946–51.

[10] Pilch W, Wnorowski J, Szyguła Z: Prosta ocena wydatku energetycznego podczas aerobiku high-impact. Medicina Sportiva Practica, 2006; vol. 7, no. 3: 30–32.

[11] Borkowski J: Bioenergetyka i biochemia tlenowego wysiłku fi zycznego. Wrocław, AWF, 2003.

[12] Malarecki I: Zarys fi zjologii wysiłku i treningu sportowego. 1995.

[13] Costil DL: Naukowe podstawy treningu długodystansow-ca. Sport Wyczynowy, 1976.

[14] Jaskólski A: Podstawy fi zjologii wysiłku fi zycznego. Wro-cław, AWF, 2005.

REVIEW PAPERSPRACE PRZEGLĄDOWE

– 99 –

THE MUSCLE RELAXATION ABILITY AND RESULTS IN SPORT OF WORLD ELITE COMPETITORS

ZDOLNOŚĆ ROZLUŹNIANIA MIĘŚNI A WYNIKI SPORTOWE ZAWODNIKÓW ŚWIATOWEJ ELITY

Włodzimierz Starosta*

**Prof. Dr habil, International Association of Sport Kinetics; University School of Physical Education and Tourism in Białystok, Poland

Key words: muscle relaxation, method of relaxation, results of relaxation, different sports, effectiveness of sport technique, competitors of world elite

Słowa kluczowe: rozluźnianie mięśni, metody rozluźniania, skutki rozluźniania, różne dyscypliny, efektywność techniki sportowej, zawodnicy światowej elity

In the theory and methodology of sport training there are issues which are extremely important and which are marginal. As a rule, the first kind of issues becomes the subject of intensive research, whereas the second occasionally and fragmentarily are subject to scientific penetration. Sometimes, these extremely important, although not being sufficiently dealt with, cease to be the subject of interest. It seems that the same lot fell upon the extremely important issue which was and still is – the ability of muscle relaxation. Despite the significant progress in the knowledge about sport training, muscle relaxation accounts for a relatively little exploited reserve in the practice of physical education and sport. There are fewer and fewer such reserves, since in contemporary record-seeking sport, more often it is the odds and ends that affect the final result. The ability to relax muscles is not trifle, since according to scientists and coaches the low level of muscle relaxation inhibits the achievement of maximal sport results.

The superficial overview of contemporary literature related to physical education and sport demonstrates that the issue has recently become barely noted, though 30–40 years ago it was a subject of various research works, carried out by specialists of various scientific disciplines in many countries Taking into account the evident shortage of new information, as well as the lack of interdisciplinary interpretation of the issue, particularly from the point of view of the science about human movement – antropokinesiology, the work hereby focuses on the achievement of the following aims: 1. Definition of the place of the muscle relaxation ability in the science about human movement. 2. Manifestation of the muscle relaxation ability in various sport disciplines. 3. Search for the relationship between this ability and other motor abilities. 4. Establishment of the relation between the level of the ability of muscle relaxation and sport techniques. 5. Attempt to establish the influence of the ability of muscle relaxation on the effectiveness of technique and on the sport success.

W teorii i metodyce treningu sportowego są zagadnienia wyjątkowo ważne i marginalne. Z reguły te pierwsze

stanowią przedmiot intensywnych badań, te drugie zaś podlegają sporadycznym i fragmentarycznym penetracjom naukowym. Czasami te wyjątkowo ważne, mimo niewystarczającego ich opracowania, przestają być przedmio-tem zainteresowania. Wydaje się, że taki los spotkał niezwykle ważne zagadnienie, jakim była i pozostała zdolność rozluźniania mięśni. Mimo ogromnego postępu wiedzy o treningu sportowym rozluźnienie mięśni stanowi dotychczas stosunkowo mało wykorzystaną rezerwę w praktyce wychowania fizycznego, a także sportu. A rezerw tych jest coraz mniej. We współczesnym sporcie wyczynowym bowiem o końcowym sukcesie coraz częściej decydują drobiazgi. Zdolność rozluźniania mięśni do drobiazgów nie należy, bo jej niski poziom według uczonych i trenerów hamuje osiągnięcie maksymalnych wyników sportowych.



Włodzimierz Starosta

– 100 –

Przegląd współczesnego piśmiennictwa dotyczącego wychowania fizycznego i sportu wskazuje, iż zagadnienie to ostatnio stało się ledwo zauważalne, choć 30–40 lat wstecz było przedmiotem badań w licz-nych krajach prowadzonych przez specjalistów rozmaitych dyscyplin naukowych. Uwzględniając wyraźny niedobór nowszych informacji, a także nie zawsze interdyscyplinarnego interpretowania tego zagadnienia, szczególnie z punktu widzenia nauki o ruchach człowieka – antropokinezjologii, ukierunkowano niniejszą pracę na osią-gnięcie następujących celów: 1. Określenie miejsca zdolności rozluźniania mięśni w nauce o ruchach człowieka. 2. Przejawianie się zdolności rozluźnienia mięśni w różnych dyscyplinach sportu. 3. Poszukiwanie związku tej zdolności z innymi zdolnościami motorycznymi. 4. Ustalenie relacji pomiędzy poziomem zdolności rozluźniania mięśni a techniki sportowej, 5. Próba ustalenia wpływu zdolności rozluźniania mięśni na efektywność techniki i sukces sportowy.

Only the one who is able to master the art of relaxationcan achieve success in sport

[Matwiejew, Nowikow, 1982]

Introduction

In the theory and methodology of sport training issues that are exceptionally important and those that are marginal co-exist concurrently. The fi rst ones become a subject of intense studies, and the latter of sporadic research. At times those important issues cease to be the subject of any interest. It seems that this is what has happened to an issue of great importance – muscle relaxation ability. Exercises with „…the biggest ten-sion and the biggest relaxation” were used already in the ancient times. What is this ability? This is how it is understood by W. Farfel, a physiologist: “Relaxation – a widely used term in sport, which nevertheless has no accurate defi nition or quantitative dimen-sion. I perceive relaxation as an ability of random reduction of unnecessary and refl ective muscle tonus.” [1, p. 16]. Despite continuous progress in knowledge muscle relaxation remains a reserve in physical education and sport, which has been little exploited so far.

The review of specialist literature indicates that this issue has recently become practically barely perceptible, even though 30–40 years ago it was the subject of research in numerous countries, and the fo-cus of interest of specialists from many scientifi c disci-plines. Taking into account the shortage of the latest information, and what is more the interpretation of this issue which is not always interdisciplinary in nature, especially from the viewpoint of science of human movements – anthropokinesiology [2], the objec-tive of this study was: 1. Determination of the position of muscle relaxation ability in the science of human movements. 2. Manifestation of muscle relaxation abil-ity in various sport disciplines. 3. Seeking associations

of this ability with other motor abilities. 4. Determination of relations between the level of muscle relaxation abil-ity and the sport. 5. Attempt at determination of the way that the muscle relaxation ability infl uences the effec-tiveness of the technique and achievements of sport success.

1. The position of muscle relaxation ability in the science of human movements

This ability has been called differently in the past (Fig. 1). Can this ability really be regulated if its exis-tence depends on so many environmental factors? These factors comprise among others: the level of motor abilities and kinaesthetic impressions, psychi-cal properties and attitude, training system and others (Fig. 2). It seems that similarly as all forms of specif-ic “feeling of the body”, “feeling of the movement” or “feeling of the accessories” this ability depends both on genetic and on environmental factors [3]. Recently it has been included into basic coordina-tion abilities [4] (Fig. 3). This ability depends on inter-nal coordination, e.g. intramuscular and intermuscular coordination, as well as on movement coordination (its external dimension) (Fig. 4). This diagram emphasises the two-dimensional nature of the manifestation of the analysed ability.

The muscle relaxation ability is an issue which is on the border line of physiology, psychology and an-thropokinesiology. Its mechanism has been described by W. Farfel in an interesting way: “If certain movements are executed freely, especially the diffi cult or unknown ones, tension may increase in muscles which do not participate directly in the given movement. This impedes coordination of movements, in which

The muscle relaxation ability and results in sport of world elite competitors

– 101 –

Ability of free muscles relaxation [Lebiedjanska, 1952]

Ability of free muscles relaxation [Topoljan, 1953]

Ability of free muscles relaxation [Miedwiedjew, 1954]

Muscles relaxation [ owicka,1955]

Free relaxation [Farfel, 1960]

Ability of free muscles relaxation [Zaciorski, 1961]

Rational muscles reluxation [Zaciorski, 1966]

Ability of muscles relaxation [Farfel, Nazarow, 1971]

Skill of muscles relaxation [Farfel, 1975]

Art of relaxation [Nowikow, Matwiejew, 1982]

Ability of free relaxation [Ljach, 1989]

Free relaxation [Handelsman, Jedokimowa, 1990]

Ability of relaxation [Hirtz, 1994]

Scope of ability relaxtion [Hirtz, 1994]

Relaxation [Kempf, 1995]

Ability of muscles relaxation [Starosta, 1995]

H I G H

L E V E L

O F

S T E E R I N G

M O V E M E N T

A P P A R A T U S

Movements culture

Fig. 1. Calendar of formation the term of muscle relaxation ability in opinion of different authors [Starosta, 2009]


– 102 –

Personal data (age, sex, degree of advancement, sport experience, movement experience).

Motor abilities (degree of physical abilities, particularly coordination).

Ability of differentiation space, time and strength movement in standard and variable conditions.

Ability of muscle relaxationl

Psychic qualities (psychic predispositions, motivation, resistance to stress, ability to react in difficult and unusual situations, temperament and others).

Psychic attitude (i.e. to perform exercises correctly, to achieve a defined sport result or to set a record).

Training system (methods, means, versatility, variability of exercises used, training loads and others).

Level of kinesthetic impressions (i.e. „body feeling”, „movement feeling”) and other specific for the discipline (i.e. „ball feeling”, „water feeling”, „feeling of the opponent”, „mat feeling”, „javelin feeling”

Sport equipment (adequate in quality, adequately adapted to the competitor and not worse than the one of the competitors)

Specificity of the training and competition site (climatic zone, temperature and air humidity, illumination of the sport facility, number of spectators and their reactions.).

Personality of the coach (authority, competence, requirements, kindness, remarks adequate to the existing situation ).

during tensing of one group of muscles relaxation of another is necessary. That is why coaches draw the at-tention of their students-athletes to the necessity of mas-tering the ability of relaxing those muscles, the excessive tensing of which impedes the performance of a given movement. Practice has shown that manifestation of this ability in many cases encounters severe diffi -culties.” [1, p. 15]. This is confi rmed by an example, de-scribed by the Author, which relates to the freestyle low-ering of the hand. The antigravitational tension has been

registered fi rst by measuring the speed of the falling hand [5], then by making a comparison of the hand weight with its weight calculated according to N. Bernstein [6] and fi nally by its “differentiated” weighing [7]. The tests com-prised an athlete and a person not practicing sport (Fig. 5). In the fi rst case the recorded relaxation equalled 88%, and in the latter case – 48%.

In another study the level of relaxation ability in the athletes was also much higher (73%) than in persons not practicing any sport at all (55%) [8].

Fig. 2. Selected conditions changing the level of ability of muscle relaxation [Starosta, 2009]


– 103 –

Fig. 3. Relationship between coordination and physical abilities in different sport disciplines [Starosta 1995]

In highly advanced athletes specialised in modern pen-tathlon after a 4km long cross country run the relax-ation index was lowered on average by 16.3%, after a swimming training by 11.0%, after fencing tournament by 11.5%, and after an exhausting run on the treadmill by 7.6% [8]. On the basis of a 9-week long experi-ment, during which special exercises were applied, a statistically signifi cant increase of the relaxation index was proven [8].

2. Manifestation of muscle relaxation ability in various sport disciplines

A high movement culture comprise skilful tensing and relaxation of muscles. The muscle relaxation ability

differs from their tensing even in highly advanced athletes. Discoordination with respect to relaxation and tensing may be a cause of straining or even break-ing of muscle fi bres [9; 10]. It is much simpler to mani-fest muscle control culture in local rather than in global movements. The fi rst ones involve few muscles or their parts, and in the second group large muscle groups of the entire body. Muscle relaxation in the fi rst group is much simpler than in the latter group. The rela-tions that occur between local and global move-ments have not been undertaken in scientifi c re-search [2].

Observation of athletes participating in “cyclical” sport disciplines enables the determination, in those best ones, of a signifi cant “freedom of movement”,


– 104 –

Fig. 4. Kinds and structure of coordination [Starosta, 2009]

Fig. 5. Muscle relaxation in athlete (A) and non-athlete (B) [Farfel, 1995, 16, after Nazarov]

)


– 105 –

which proves exceptional muscle relaxation. It is much more evident in black athletes at the fi nal metres of their short distance run. The relaxation of large muscle groups proves the ability of full and rational use of those muscles. Muscle relaxation is much simpler in “cyclical” sport disciplines. It is much more complex in “acyclical” disciplines, especially those in which the movement has to meet high aesthetic requirements, among others, in sport and artistic gymnastics, in sport ballroom dance. In those disciplines movements should be characterised by: smoothness, harmony, rhythm, lightness, accuracy, transfer (Fig. 6). Manifestation of

their high level is not possible without the ability of muscle relaxation.

Muscle tension can be affective and coordina-tional by nature. The fi rst one of them is caused by: fear, anxiety about loosing or fear of spectators, ”the pre-start anxiety”. This has been observed in 30% of professional golf players. The second one causes contraction of antagonistic muscles (opposite to those involved in the exercise) when the athletes per-form a decisive movement. It is even noted in the case of outstanding athletes with long-lasting ex-perience.

A b i l i t y

o f

m u s c l e r e l a x a t i o n

1. Movement harmony

2. Movement transmission

3. Movement fluency

4. Movement elasticity

5. Movement rhythm

6. Movement lightness

7. Movement precision

8. Movement anticipation

1. Kinesthetic differentiation of movement

2. Movements rhythmisation

3. Movements connection

4. Movements adaptation

5. Maintenance of balance

6. Speed of reaction

7. Space and time orientation

8. Movements symmetrization

9. Movements expressiveness

10. Cooperations

Fig. 6. Mutual conditions determining muscle relaxation, quality features of movement and other coordination abilities [Starosta, 2009]


– 106 –

3.

9.

5.

10.

Muscle relaxation

Movements differentiation Movements rhythmization

Movements connection

Movements adaptation

Maintenance of balance

Space and time orientation

Movements expressivensss

Speed of reaction

Movements symmetrization

Cooperations

1. 2.

4.

6.

7. 8.

3. The connection of muscle relaxation ability with other motor abilities

A master control of the motor system, which is called the movement culture, comprises the ability of tensing and relaxing of muscles. An athlete unable to relax muscles to the maximum extent would not be able to tense them in an optimum way, i.e. “just right”. Optimum muscle relaxation allows using the master level technique and maintaining a high endurance level, speed and force while the effort is made during training and competitions. Of particular importance in sports re-quiring a complex technique is maintaining the coordi-nation durability over a longer time (e.g. martial arts, in sport games), which allows the execution of accurate movements.

Muscle relaxation ability is a result of a high level of intramuscular and intermuscular coordination. It is

Fig. 7. Correlation between ability of muscles relaxation and other coordination abilities and their hierarchy [Starosta, 2009]

a specifi c manifestation in an individual, which depends on quick variability in the processes of stimulation and restraining. It seems that a higher level of the ability of rhythmic and quick muscle relaxation at a high movement frequency characterises black ath-letes. This may be confi rmed by successive success achieved by representatives of this race during high-est rank competitions and the ever better world records broken by them in sprinter runs. Final games in those competitions during world championships and Olympic Games presented on television in slow motion show the “wonderful muscle play” in them. An interesting view was presented on this issue by T. Tellez, coach of the famous sprinter champion C. Lewis: “...he was truly in-spired by Borzow’s runs. In his opinion the sprinter ran in the most natural way, always at his own speed... Walery Borzow was the most perfect running ma-chine created by humankind.” [11].


– 107 –

The “wonderful muscle play” – is the end product of successful composition of a few more important coordination abilities: movement differentiation and their rhythmisation, symmetrisation, combination and adaptation of movements, muscle relaxation (Fig. 7). A leading position among them is occupied by the muscle relaxation ability which takes place in combina-tion with their selective tensing – creating a seemingly natural chain of manifestations of mutually interdepen-dent coordination abilities. The muscle relaxation de-gree depends, to a large extent, on the ability of force based movement differentiation. It also com-prises the level of muscular tension, i.e. its portioning depending on the specifi c situation. Such portioning has been called “force accuracy” [12]. The appli-cation of optimum force characterises presently the technique of almost all sport disciplines. This even concerns the discipline of weight lifting. Its excess violates the most vital fragments of the technique and frequently leads to “lost battles”. A strong relation also exists between the ability of movement rhythmisation and muscle relaxation. This has been formulated quite precisely by K. Meinel: “The concept of movement rhythm comprises dynamic movement structure, based on periodical variability of muscle tension and relaxation.” [13, p. 180–181]. This variability is de-termined by the speed of performed movements. It may be achieved easier for movements with a smaller speed than those with a greater speed [14]. The manifestation of this variability is simpler in cyclical movements that in acyclical ones (arrhythmic ones), especially in the short lasting ones (e.g. throws). The most complex mo-saic-like nature of muscle tension and relaxation

occurs in series of diversifi ed exercises (arrange-ments) e.g. sport or artistic gymnastics. It may be described as kaleidoscopic fi reworks of those two important types of muscle work.

4. Relation between muscle relaxation and tension

Proportional interaction of relaxation and tensing of specifi ed muscles at the appropriate moment is a necessary prerequisite for intermuscular coordi-nation. The performance of movements, and especially those that are complex from coordination point of view and unknown, independently of the exercising person, increases the tensing of muscles which are not directly involved in that movement. The excessive muscle tonus and their insuffi cient relaxation cause a phenomenon called “constraining” (of the body, movements, mus-cles) or “stiffening”. Such tension reduces the qual-ity of the performed movements making them awk-ward and inaccurate. This type of tension may be effectively overcome by the application of special relaxing exercises [14, 15] (Fig. 8). It is also possible to reduce this type of tension by applying the so-called “coaching tricks” (Fig. 9).

A physiological effect of relaxation depends to a large extent on the type of earlier muscle work [17, 18]. Consequently W. Fedorow and A. Furmanow [19] have carried out a two-year long experiment on female volleyball players to determine the impact of “momen-tary relieving” on muscle relaxation. The degree to which the muscles go from tension to relaxation, i.e. the relaxation amplitude was determined. In the ex-perimental group force tensions have been changed

Groups of relaxation exercises

Exercises combined with the moving from tension to muscles and to relaxation through: -usual degree of muscle tension; - contrasting immediately from tension to relaxation; - gradual.

Exercises in which relaxation of some muscles is connected with the tightening of other

These exercises require holding inertial movement of the relaxed part of the body thanks to other movements.

It consists of regular physical exercises at the time when competitors are offered to independently define their time of rest and at this time perform maximal muscle relaxation

1. 2. 3. 4.

Fig. 8. Groups of exercises aimed at muscles relaxation according to the increasing degree of their complexity [Łowicka 1956, 1957]


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Ways of tension elimination

Explanation regarding the incorrectness of performing exercises with tension. (exercises should be performed with lightness, freely, as if “in a play”). Particularly important when working with children. In American schools special slogans and banners are hung to remind of the muscle relaxation.

Special relaxation exercises. Aim: developing abilities recognizing muscle relaxation; earning to relax them freely (4 groups according to

owicka, 1964).

Using special means: During the execution of exercises –sing, smile, talk, close your eyes for a moment. Observing the mimicry of the competitor, which expresses tension. Before performing the exercise- tighten the muscles of the entire body, hold the breath, then suddenly relax them (with a forceful expiration), and them immediately take up the exercise.

Methods of autogenic training of J.H. Schultz are applied not only to eliminate tension but also to accelerate recuperation, decrease excessive stimulation during competitions.

1. 2. 3. 4.

Fig. 9. Ways (pedagogical methods) of eliminating coordination tension [Zaciorski, 1966, 175–176]

by a momentary elimination of external resistance combined with deep enforced exhaling. This as-sured quick and deep muscle relaxation. In the con-

trol group in identical exercises the external resistance has been eliminated more smoothly. In this group at the beginning of the experiment an insignifi cant reduction

Fig 10. Measurements results of muscle hardness tension and relaxation in female volleyball players of experimental and control group in one year training [Fedotov, Furmanov, 1971]


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Fig. 11. Changeability of reaction time (A) and internal movement speed (B) in female volleyball players of experimental and control group in one year training [Fedotov, Furmanov 1971]

Fig. 12. Changeability of joint fl exibility in female volleyball players of experimental and control group in one year training [Fedotov, Furmanov 1971]


– 110 –

Fig. 13. Relationship between movement abilities and relaxation amplitude [Fedotov, Furmanov 1971]

in muscle hardness (tonometry), and then return to the initial condition were observed (Fig. 10). In the experi-mental group the muscle tension hardness has de-creased and its tonic relaxation has been consider-ably reduced. The reaction time to a moving ball was shorter in this group by 14.7% than in the control group (Fig. 11), and additionally the movement amplitude in the joint was enhanced by 39.7% as compared to the control group (Fig. 12). In addition, in female athletes of the experimental group an improvement was noted as for: the strength of the back muscles – by 8.5%, strength of the hand muscles – 7.8%; jumping ability – 1.3%, strength of attacking blow – 17.2%. The differenc-es in results were statistically signifi cant. Statistically signifi cant relation between the increasing ampli-tude of muscle relaxation and all the motor skills allowed for in the tests was ascertained (Fig. 13). The biggest dependency was noted between the relax-ation amplitude and the time of sight and motor reaction (0.826) and the initial movement speed (0.842).

5. Muscle relaxation and the sport technique

According to some authors [3, 20, 21, 22] sport tech-nique comprises forms (“external movement im-age”) and contents (“internal movement image”)

(Fig. 14). Developing of the form is much simpler, as observation of the structure of a performed movement allows relatively quick determination of its basic indices. Much more complicated is the analysis of constituent elements of the contents, one of the most important of which is the ability of muscle relaxation. An interesting statement on this issue was made by J. Weismuller, multiple champion of the Olympic Games and the world record winner in swimming: ”The biggest secret be-hind my success is relaxation. Relaxation is im-portant even when I’m swimming at the greatest speed.” [24, p. 4]. Excellent mastering of the technique is characterised by unconstrained and natural execution of particular movements. The muscle relaxation ability stands out from their tensing even in advanced athletes [9, 10]. “»The secret« of highly advanced competi-tors lies in their ability of not becoming tense in the decisive moments of a sport competition.” (…) The muscle play during performance of movements is characterised by a kaleidoscopic change in tension and relaxation.” [24, p. 34].

In an incorrectly implemented teaching process the emphasis is placed on muscle tension, disregarding the mastering of the ability of their relaxation. That is why in some US gyms we may see slogans like: “Remember, success in sport is only possible if you master the


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Fig. 14. Contents of sport technique [Starosta 2001]

art of relaxation”, “It’s not the result that counts, but the freedom of movements” [25, p. 175], ”You’ll never become a champion if you don’t master the ability of muscle relaxation”. Interesting remarks on this subject were made by N. Ozolin: “A lot of attention has to be paid to »unconstrained« performance of all sport exercises, without unnecessary muscle tension. It is indispensable for the athlete to be well familiar with the essence of »relaxation« in move-ments and to be aware of its importance. The main way leading to mastering the freedom and lack of ten-sion in movements – is conscious striving at executing them »as if playing«.” [26, p. 143].

The majority of 7–11-year old children have a natural muscle relaxation ability, which disap-pears at a later age, if not further developed. In such a way the phenomenon of movement illiteracy is created. It is among others a consequence of reduced movement activity, limiting movements only to those that are indispensable and specialised, avoiding or lim-iting natural movements. This specifi c type of illiteracy

was also observed in high class wrestlers in short dis-tance runs.

Particularly interesting conclusions are reached dur-ing observation of athletes, who during tournaments fo-cus on maximum muscle relaxation. These measures are particularly intensifi ed in athletes specialised in jumping and in sprint runs. For them muscle re-laxation, and in particular, relaxation of those in the lower extremities, becomes of utmost importance, de-termining the achievement of the desired result. Such relaxation was achieved slightly differently by U. Bolt, a Jamaican, world champion and record winner in a 100-metre run. Before the start of a fi nal run during world championships in Berlin he ‘played with the spec-tators”, laughed and made funny faces. However, once in the “starting blocks” he focused particularly hard on the forthcoming start. Perhaps this is a new and much better way of achieving an extraordinary muscle relax-ation during a run?

W. Legień, a world champion, made an interest-ing statement about the training of Japanese judokas:


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“Training of the Japanese comprises in the fi rst place a lot of relaxing exercises. They are all well stretched. Each muscle remains so relaxed at any time that it allows the athlete to perform even the most as-tounding movements. And this is apparently more im-portant in judo than superhuman force.” [27]. S. Smith, winner of a tennis tournament in Wimbledon [1972] in singles has formulated 6 commandments impor-tant for achieving success in this sport discipline. The most important one concerned muscle relaxation during the tournament: ”Even the most gifted athlete cannot win a single tournament if he or she feels rigid during the play. Stiffening, fi rst of all, deprives the athlete of the freedom of movements, violates their coordination and causes quicker fatigue.” And we read on: “In numerous cases stiffening disturbs the rhythm, and excessively tense muscles prevent smooth performance of a blow.” [28, p. 52].

6. An attempt at determination of the impact of muscle relaxation ability on the effectiveness of the technique and sport success

The muscle relaxation ability is exceptionally important for the entire human organism, as it is connected with reducing mental tension. The mus-

cular system and the psyche are strictly interrelated, as they are bound by the central nervous system which assures the unity of the human organism. Muscle stiffening limits the selectivity of their tensing and lowers the movement accuracy without which the technique becomes insuffi ciently effective. Muscle re-laxation is indispensable not only before the start, but also during the tournament. For example W. Legień, the Olympic judo champion, relaxed his muscles before the execution of each throw. The relaxation may be defi ned: “…as a state of full well being, psychical and physical freeing. Relaxation means regeneration; it eliminates stress, gives a feeling of inner peace and contentment. It replenishes the energy and adds new strength.” [29, p. 29]. This is conducive not only to lowering muscle tonus, but also for the frequency of heart systoles and blood pressure; widens the blood vessels, reduces the number of brain waves and energy use (Fig. 15).

The sprinter run of the Olympic champion and world record winner F. Griffi th-Joyner was defi ned as being full of grace. And this is how she achieved such move-ment precision: “In 1987 we looked through old video cassettes to try and fi nd out why I was not running as well as I could, without making use of the entire energy. We came to the conclusion that the reason was in-

Results of muscles relaxation

Decreasing muscle tension (rising the level of qualitative features of movement, and particularly of its accuracy).

Lowering heart contractions and blood tension [Jakobson, 1948; Handelsman, Jewdokimowa,1990].

Decreasing the frequency of breaths

Widening of blood vessels (rise of body temperature by 2-6 C).

Decreasing the number of brain waves (to the level proper to sleep).

Increased economy of movements (Lowering energy consumption by 30%).

Increasing movement amplitude

Increasing the level of coordination abilities (particularly, differentiation of movements)

Increase in the level of speed, strength and endurance

During symmetrization of movements – transfer „refreshment” of kinesthetic impressions. (among others specific to:„ball feeling”, „water feeling”, „bar feeling”, „feeling of the opponent”, „field feeling” and other [Starosta, 1991, 2003].

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10

Fig. 15. Impact of muscle relaxation on particular systems of the human organism [Starosta, 2009]*

* Based on data elaborated by: A. Handelsman, T. Jewdokimowa [1990], W. Jakobson [1948], H-D. Kempf 1994, W. Starosta [1991, 2003].


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suffi cient relaxation. Legs worked quickly, but I did not manage to move as quickly as I wanted. And so I sought ways of obtaining better relaxation. Now I move my legs equally quickly, but in each step I manage to overcome a bigger distance. Breaking of the world record required running the 100-metre run in 47–49 steps, while before that I would make ca. 56 steps.” [30]. This statement clearly indicates the existence of a dependence between the level of muscle relaxation ability and the movement amplitude (elongated steps), as well as movement aesthetics. The obtained effect was fully justifi ed by results of earlier studies: “The ap-plication of relaxation exercises in the period when stiff-ness increases in the joints considerably enhances the training effectiveness (ca. 10%). What is more, those exercises are conducive to increasing the amplitude, both active and passive.” [31, p.79].

An interesting case was noted for the record break-ing javelin throw by J. Sidło during the competition

held in Jena. In the fi rst throw he achieved the result of 71.59 which assured him winning the fi rst place. In the second throw he broke the Polish record – 77.32. The third throw was performed according to instruc-tions given by his coach, Z. Szelest: “..lightly, without any effort at all. And so in such an »effortless way« the javelin fl ew 80.15, which was a new record of Europe, inferior only by 26 cm to the best record won by an American-Held, which has not been rec-ognised yet as the world record.” [32]. The hazard of muscle stiffness may also occur in the least expected moment. Here is a story reported by a bronze medal winner of the Olympic Games in Tokyo in a 400-me-tre run, A. Badeński: “Had I then been a few years older and more experienced than I was, I would have returned home with a gold medal. After 300 metres I was in the lead by four metres, and I should have con-tinued very relaxed to the fi nish, maintaining my advantage. And instead I tried to overcome the op-

Table 1. Determining factors changing the level of muscle relaxation [Starosta, 2009]

increasing – improving decreasing – deteriorating

1. Mastering the correct coordination of exercises 2. In endurance exercises – performing exercises until exhaustion.3. In ballistic exercises – performing exercises „in no time” – inertly.4. Performing relaxation exercises after every exercises engendering “ten-

sion” .5. Feeling local fatigue.6. Massage, self- massage and hydro-massage.7. Developing attitudes towards relaxation.8. Deliberate control of the technique of exercises.9. Control of the face mimcry (showing tension).

10. Applying rhythmic breathing.11. Performing exercises with the accompaniment of music.12. Turning the attention to the surrounding environment (other objects and

tasks)13. Using ideomotor and autogenic training (i.e. of Schultz, 1956]14. Singing, talking, smiling – during the performance of exercises.15. Performing exercises with eyes closed.16. Focusing attention to the correct performance of exercises( accuracy,

amplitude of movements).17. Loud counting of movements, uttering words or phrases related to the

particularities of the technique and the character of effort.18. Optimistic attitude towards performed exercises.19. Recalling an amusing event or anecdote prior to the exercises performed.20. Spontaneous – natural laughter before exercises („relaxing laugh”)

[Bevin, 2000].21. Swimming and bathing in warm water.22. Performing exercises alternatively with maximal and decreased intensity.23. Performing exercises alternatively with the right and left side of the

body („refreshing kinesthetic impressions”)[Starosta, 1991].24. Shaking arms, legs and the trunk.25. Relaxed „fall” of the trunk, raised arms and legs.26. Conscious relaxation of muscles while sitting or lying.27. Relaxed swaying of the arms and legs.28. Progressive relaxation E. Jakobson [1948].

1. Coordination complexity of the exercise.2. Weakness of those muscles used during exercises.3. Low level of fl exibility.4. Emotional stimulation (i.e. number of spectators,

rank of competitions and other).5. The eagerness to perform exercises „at full steam”.6. Low temperature of the surrounding.7. Performing complex and unknown exercises.8. Performing exercises aimed at „obtaining

results”.9. Negative attitude prior to the performance of exer-

cises.10. Unfavorable psychic microclimate in the team.11. Negative evaluation of the performed exercises.12. Tense relationships between the athletes and

coach.13. Personal problems of the competitor (ego).14. Very high temperature of the surrounding.15. Series of failures suffered.16. Intensive strength exercises.17. Lack of suffi cient psychomotor and biological

recuperation.18. Lack or insuffi cient number of relaxing exercises

in the process of training.19. Exhaustion and weariness [Nazarow, 1964].20. Bad frame of mind.21. Uncertainty of the possessed sport abilities22. Exessive training load.


– 114 –

ponents and over a distance of three-four metres I became so stiffened that in the end I got a terrible cramp; my only thought was – to get to the fi nish.” [33].

The contemporary civilisation popularised a style of living “relaxed” as an antidote to stress which accompanies humans almost in any condi-tions. What do the saying: “relaxation”, “be relaxed”, “relax” mean? Behaviour without any constraints, with-out psychical and muscular tension. In many cases “re-laxation” entails the use of relaxing substances (such as beer) which are to add courage, to unblock control centres and lower self-control. It is much more ratio-nal to make use of numerous natural means and methods increasing the effectiveness of various types of motor activities of an individual without exposing the health to harm (Table 1). Muscular “re-laxation” is strictly connected with the psychical one. Both take place in the central nervous system and have a mutual interaction. This means that to a large extent they are mutually interdependent, i.e. the “mental relaxation” affects the “muscle relaxation” and vice versa. Both types of “relaxation” depend on the type of psychical approach of a person based on the concept formulated by D. Uznadze [34, 35, 36]. This may be illustrated by the performance

of A. Małysz, winner of numerous medals during high-est rank competitions in ski jumping. When his focus was on technically correct jump he managed to achieve successive successes. Later he shifted his focus to achieving a specifi c result and occupying a specifi ed position. Such an approach was accompanied by increasing emotions, and along with them, re-duced muscle relaxation. Some observers, and also Małysz himself, called this phenomenon “tightness” or “stiffness”, and as a consequence a growing shortage of “relaxation”. “Muscle stiffness” signifi cantly lowers the level of “feeling of the threshold”, “feeling of the body position during the jump” etc. As an effect, during competitions the achieved results were getting worse each time. Such psychical approach, unfavourable in immeasurable disciplines and those that require a high movement quality as well as its effects, were already mentioned a long time ago [37]. The level of muscle relaxation ability, similarly as the vari-ous types of feeling, are highly variable. This may be proven by a statement made by W. Fortuna, an Olympic champion, about the participation of A. Małysz in world championships in 2007: “yesterday he was jumping in a relaxed way, and today he has become tense”.


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DISCUSSIONSPOLEMIKI I DYSKUSJE

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TIME PERCEPTION AND MOTOR BEHAVIOUR OF LIVING BEINGS

POSTRZEGANIE CZASU A ZACHOWANIE RUCHOWE ISTOT ŻYWYCH

Wacław Petryński* , Mirosław Szyndera**

***Dr, Faculty of Tourism, Katowice School of Economics, Katowice, Poland***Dr, Faculty of Tourism and Recreation, University School of Physical Education, Cracow, Poland

Keywords: motor control, physiology, psychology, sociologySłowa kluczowe: sterowanie ruchami, fizjologia, psychologia, socjologia

The authors discuss influence of time perception development on behaviour control in living beings, includ-ing humans. At first they present “classical” division into energetic and coordinative constituents. Next they add third group, i.e. psychological elements, and then the fourth category, i.e. cultural factors. Unlike divisions made in most scientific papers, which usually take into account energetic and coordinative constituents only, the explanation of the processes involved in human behaviour needs taking into account all four circles of elements: energetic, coordinative, psychological and cultural ones. In the course of evolution they developed along with central nervous system. This development included also the capability of better and better formation of a unique ability, necessary for understanding of reality: the time perception, which significantly influenced all behaviour patterns.

Autorzy omawiają wpływ rozwoju postrzegania czasu na sterowanie zachowaniem istot żywych, w tym człowieka. Na wstępie przedstawiają „klasyczny” podział na czynniki wysiłkowe (energetyczne) i zbornościowe (koordynacyjne). Następnie dodają trzecią grupę, czyli procesy psychologiczne, i wreszcie czwartą, czyli wartości kulturowe. W odróżnieniu od większości prac naukowych, uwzględniających zwykle jedynie czynniki wysiłkowe i zbornościowe, wyjaśnienia procesów określających zachowanie człowieka upatrują we wszystkich czterech „kręgach” czynników: wysiłkowym, zbornościowym, psychologicznym i kulturowym. W toku ewolucji gatunko-wej rozwijały się one wraz z ośrodkowym układem nerwowym. Rozwój ten obejmował również możliwość coraz lepszego kształtowania niezwykłej zdolności niezbędnej do rozumienia rzeczywistości, czyli postrzegania czasu, które wywarło znaczący wpływ na wzorce wszelkich zachowań.

The development of a mankind consists of two stages:at fi rst a human started to think about things, and then – to think about thinking.

John D. Barrow



Introduction

The behaviour of living beings – including humans – has been for a long time an important point of interest for many

scientists in different disciplines. Here it would be instruc-tive to quote an anecdote by Nikolai A. Bernstein:

“You probably do not know that God has a cousin who has nev-er been very famous. So, the cousin asked God to help him achieve

Wacław Petryński, Mirosław Szyndera

– 120 –

fame and glory in science. To please the cousin, God gave him abil-ity to get any information about physical systems in no time and to travel anywhere within a microsecond. First the cousin decided to check whether there was life on other planets. No problems: he travelled to all the planets simultaneously and got an answer. Then he decided to fi nd out what the foundation of matter was. Again, this was easy: He became extremely small, crawled inside the elemen-tary particles, looked around, and got an answer. Then, he decided to learn how the human brain controls movements. He acquired the information about all the neurons and their connections, sat at his desk and looked at the blueprint. If the story has it right, he is still sitting there and starring at the map of neuronal connections” [1].

So, in the development of motor science we come across three important factors:

The matter of human behaviour is probably most complicated issue in contemporary science, much more intricate than e.g. quantum mechanics or molecu-lar biology.

In physics Sir Isaac Newton created a mathematical projection of real world, which opened way for applica-tion of the deduction method for its description. On the other hand, in physical culture, the essence of which is much more complicated than relations between mass, force and acceleration, mainly the inductive way of rea-soning is adopted [2, 3].

In contemporary researches into human behaviour, deduction and induction are not used as complemen-tary methods, but they rather collide with each other. Moreover, an extremely inductive stream of thinking in physical culture sciences was behaviourism, which placed all the deductive methods in so called “black box”. Unfortunately, the consequences of behavioural approach to motor control problems are discernible even now, though behaviourism itself seems to be no more so infl uential as before.

In physics the Newton’s achievements became some important turning point: According to outstanding

mathematician René Thom, before Newton the obser-vations went ahead of theory, and after Newton – the theory did overtake observations [2]. Some great theo-ries, e.g. the quantum mechanics, would not be possi-ble with observations as a starting point, because quan-tum phenomena were then far beyond the capabilities of both human sense organs and even measurement instruments. Unfortunately, in physical culture sciences we still observe mainly striving for collecting “new, origi-nal experimental data”, and scientists are expected to make fi rst of all observations and measurements, and not to formulate theories.

Two circles – energy and coordination; physiology

The fi rst complex and systemic theory of living beings motor behaviour had been created by Bernstein in 1947 [4, 5]. In classical paradigm of human movement analy-sis, two main factors are taken into account: energetic and coordinative ones [6, 7]. More detailed such divi-sion had been presented by Gundlach [8]. The inter-relation of both these factors is shown in Fig. 1.

In a living organism the energetic or physiological factors are determined by energy transformation (meta-bolic processes), which result in muscle contraction and expenditure of work into environment. Information processing in living creatures bases also on energy fl ows (neural impulses), but their power is negligible as compared to those developed by muscles; so, the muscles act as mighty servomechanisms. To achieve a certain level of effi cacy, a living organism has to use both energetic and coordinative capabilities. In Fig. 1 such a situation is represented by the fi eld ”Effi cacious motor actions”.

Fig. 1. Interrelations between coordination and energy transformations; efficacious motor actions

ENERGY TRANSFORMATIONS

(METABOLISM)

EFFICACIOUS MOTOR ACTIONS

COORDINATION (NEUROPHYSIOLOGY)

Time perception and motor behaviour of living beings

– 121 –

The sheer use of energetic and coordinative capabili-ties in a living being does not need any time perception. Even primitive animals, as worms or snails, are able to perform quite coordinated movements. However, their motion is aimed at looking for stimuli in environment us-ing the “trial-and-error” method. Bernstein wrote:

“Consider a worm that crawls to an obstacle or a snail that reaches the tip of a grass blade. When there are complications of this kind, these animals start rather animated, aimless searching movements in all directions. In the more highly developed neoki-netic animals, movements follow sensations; that is, movements are directed and controlled by sensations. In the lower animals, the op-posite is true: Sensations are served and provided by movements”

[7]1.

Third circle – emotions and reason; psychology

More advanced animals developed remote sense organs – teleceptors. The most complicated of them seems to be vision. At fi rst the eyes were placed at the sides of head, enabling panoramic view. Then, es-pecially in predators, they moved to one plane, what enabled stereoscopic, three-dimensional view [9]. Such an ability to see has facilitated the perception and evaluation of position and its change, i.e. motion. The process of place changing was inseparably con-nected with some speed, and this made necessary to perceive – at least in some sense – a new important factor: the time.

Detailed analysis of time perception has been presented by Holly Andersen and Rick Grush [10]. They described this phenomenon from psychological (William James) philosophical (Edmund Husserl) and physical (William Hamilton) point of view. Time is one of the most elusive, abstract and mysterious notions in whole human knowledge; by now it was impossible to formulate an internally coherent, succinct defi nition of it. So, in four-dimensional space-time continuum, where the results of motor control processes are observable, it is necessary to turn to less philosophical, but more “tangible” description of time2. The more accessible

1 The quoted fragment has been excellently translated from Russian by Mark L. Latash. The only quibble concerns the word “aimless”. In the Russian original it reads “беспорядочное”, i.e. “disorganised, chaotic”, and not “aim-less”.

2 Here we come across very important factor in science. To be useful, any scientifi c tool has to be not only effi cacious and formally correct, but also understandable and easy to use by scientists who are not specialists in a giv-en branch. This is why mathematics is not as commonly used as it should be: because it is perceived as being too complicated for non-mathematicians. Here we observe similar situation with description of the notion of time: its

(but less detailed) analysis of temporal aspects of mo-tor performances in sport had been presented by Hans-Volkhart Ulmer [11].

Not without reason the word “tangible” had been written in parentheses, because no living being has specifi c sense organs for detecting the time lapse. Using sense organs, time may be recognized only indi-rectly, by analysis of movement and velocity. Such anal-ysis has been made already by Leonardo da Vinci, who analyzed perception of velocity (inseparably connected with time) in space from the point of view of painter [12]. The sensory observable phenomena, translation and speed, are physically inseparably associated with sen-sory unobservable time.

By the way: it has to be stressed that stimuli are not information carriers per se. They are received by sense organs which produce appropriate sensory inputs. The specifi c information is being ascribed to these senso-ry inputs only in the central nervous system. So, red light means for a sailor “port side”, while for a driver – “stop”.

The occurrence of teleceptors resulted in forma-tion of some kind of time perception. The simplest was the division into past and present, later some animals mastered also the ability to anticipate – to some extent – also future events. Thus, the telecep-tors enabled extending the time-space continuum, accessible to reasonable analysis, little bit “forth” and “back” in time. Moreover, the quantity of information provided by teleceptors was so great that it evoked the necessity of signifi cant development of the cen-tral nervous system, to make it able to process this increasing (both qualitatively and quantitatively) in-formation. This is why Bernstein quotes Sir Charles Sherrington, who stated that “teleceptors created the brain” [4].

Another important element is the ability to abstract projection of reality in mind. In animals it is not a ver-bal language, but nevertheless a code of information processing, used by them, enables to project in their minds some images of past events, thus making the ground for memory. The memory includes information processing, i.e. employment of instinct, intelligence and intuition. Thus, it makes possible the processes of learning and skills acquiring. In humans crucial are also close connections of the origins of movements and language [13].

philosophical descriptions are hardly useful for motor control specialists, i.e. it is not enough “user friendly”.


– 122 –

Time perception in the range available to senses makes the ground for phenomenon addressed as “tim-ing”. Arturo Hotz describes this notion as follows:

Timing is the temporal punctuality towards a spatial point, and also the functional potential to be at proper time, with optimum speed, and in relevant place [14].

The ability to judge spatial, motor and temporal aspects of phenomena and processes, which happen in environment, have changed the role of movement in living beings. In his seminal work On construction of movements Bernstein wrote:

Teleceptors turned to be a mighty centralizing factor because they enabled an animal to react to a distant stimulus. The dimen-sions of its own body were negligible small as compared with a dis-tance to the stimulus. This brought to foreground the movements in space of whole body, thus pushing to background the partial metamere reactions which played the main role in the era of tango-ceptors domination [5].

As stated by Bernstein, movements became no more necessary to look for stimuli, but the informa-tion “extracted” from external stimuli was exploited by animals to control movements. Thus, the movements became more economical, intentional and conscious. In this respect we observe great qualitative change in motor control: here we have to do not with sheer co-ordination, which may be aimless, but with intention-ally performed motor skills. So, the load of intellectual elements in otherwise motor activity makes the differ-

ence between sheer agility and sophisticated dexterity. The agility is only coordinated cooperation of muscles which does not need to be deliberated and goal direct-ed, while the dexterity means solving the complex tasks by means of movements.

Perception of time by a dog has been excellently described by Jack London in the following fragment of his famous novel White Fang (quoted by Bernstein, 19913):

“Another advantage he possessed was that of correctly judging time and distance. Not that he did this consciously, however. He did not calculate such things. It was all automatic. His eyes saw cor-rectly, and the nerves carried the vision correctly to his brain. The parts of him were better adjusted than those of the average dog. They worked together more smoothly and steadily. His was a better, far better, nervous, mental, and muscular coordination. When his eyes conveyed to his brain the moving image of an action, his brain, without conscious effort, knew the space that limited that action and the time required for its completion. Thus, he could avoid the leap of another dog or the drive of its fangs and at the same moment could seize the infi nitesimal fraction of time in which to deliver his own attack. Body and brain, his was a more perfected mechanism. Not that he was to be praised for it. Nature had been more generous to him than to the average animal. That was all” [15].

The ability to remember past events enabled a liv-ing being to collect experiences, and later use them to probabilistic prognosis of the future [16]. The animal

3 Unfortunately, this important quotation is not included into otherwise excellent translation of this book into English (Bernstein, 1996, p. 130). It was surprise even for the translator, Mark L. Latash.

Fig. 2. Interrelations between coordination, energy transformations and emotions+mind; efficacious deliberate motor actions

COORDINATION ENERGY

TRANSFORMATIONS

EMOTIONS AND MIND

EFFICACIOUS DELIBERATE

MOTOR ACTIONS

3. I have skill I have energy I don’t want

1. I want I have skill

I have no energy

2. I want I have energy I have no skill


– 123 –

became able to judge in advance, either should it avoid some thing or phenomenon, or should it look for them. Thus emerged the motivation.

Motivation, involving emotional and rational factors, make a third important circle of elements infl uencing the behaviour of living beings (Fig. 2).

Here the fi eld of effi cacy has to include three fac-tors:• energy,• skill,• will (motivation).

Lack of any of these elements makes an effi cacious motor performance of a living being impossible.

In fi eld 1 there is lack of energy; in such a situation some development of effort abilities – strength, endu-rance, effi ciency etc. – is necessary.

Field 2 represents the lack of skills. To eliminate it, necessary is some specifi c, motor and mental training.

In fi eld 3 we have to do with lack of motivation. In humans building a proper motivation is a basic condi-tion for any deliberated (voluntary) activity.

Summing up, it is possible to state that the tango-ceptors enabled reaction to contact stimuli. Next, the development of teleceptors, together with elementary time perception, made it possible to react to distant stimuli. Additionally, the ability to make abstract projec-tions of reality in mind (the most developed code of do-ing it is the language) and time perception (timing) en-ables probabilistic anticipation of stimuli. Development of these abilities was possible only in highly advanced central nervous system and they constitute the corner-stones of increasing effi ciency and effi cacy of actions performed in environment by living creatures. The tem-poral structure of informational processes – and proper timing – is very important in many human activities, e.g. in combat sports [17].

Fourth circle – skills and tradition; culture

Homo sapiens is the only being which developed time perception beyond the limits determined by sense or-gans. The past developed into historical perspective, the future into “end of the universe”. High precision of time measurement made possible the observation of phenomena and processes lying far beyond the capa-bilities of human senses, e.g. those belonging to the sphere of quantum mechanics. Also sport measure-ments, with accuracy of up to 1/100 or 1/1000 sec-ond, are at present possible only with special devices.

Moreover, using of GPS navigation devices, more and more common by now, needs to take into account also the rules of theory of relativity, i.e. forces engi-neers to understand also some relativistic “plasticity” of time [18]. Paradoxically enough, by now scientists were not able to formulate any good defi nition of time. Nevertheless, humans had understood the notion of time to much higher extent than any other living crea-ture.

Historical perspective enabled an individual hu-man to collect not only his own experiences, but also to make use of the experiences of previous genera-tions. As John T. Cacioppo and Gary G. Berntson have stated, “humans are social animals” [19], but – unlike other living beings taking advantage of group coopera-tion – they are able to extent their “sociality” also far in the past and far in the future. The entire heritage, both material and spiritual, of a whole mankind, being consolidated and enriched in the course of history, and transferred from one generation to the next one, has been termed culture [20], which includes also science and technology.

Many human behaviour patterns are conditioned culturally. So, in scheme of factors infl uencing a human behaviour, there emerges a fourth circle: the cultural one (Fig. 3).

As in the “three-circle scheme” (Fig. 2), the coordi-nation may be here identifi ed with sensorimotor skills (sensorimotor habit patterns).

The specifi c fi eld in Fig. 3 is the B-fi eld: a place of actions possible to be performed (there is enough en-ergy, skill and will), but not allowed culturally. In other words, this is a place for criminal behaviour.

The ability to use verbal code of information pro-cessing is unique to humans and enables time percep-tion without mental limitations in past and present; here arises the notion of eternity. This makes possible to cre-ate the tribal and, at higher level of development, also the social behaviour of large human groups.

Discussion and conclusion

The diversity of origins of human behaviour affords many interpretational diffi culties. The energy circle “belongs” to physiology; the coordination one – to neu-rophysiology, the motivation one – to psychology, and the cultural one – to sociology. Each of these branches of science has its own scientifi c workshop, traditions, achievements (and defeats). Some kind of false “scien-tifi c pride” makes it diffi cult to fi nd a common language


– 124 –

for all these branches of science. Moreover, all the branches listed above are rooted in inductionist rather and not deductionist methodology of science develop-ment. Nevertheless, in contemporary science some kind of mathematical description, deductionist in its core, is more and more necessary and here we come across confl icts between both these streams. Mathematics is in fact some kind of language enabling fully formalised expression, reliable reasoning and drawing accurate conclusion about the real world even without direct con-tact with it. Such a language enables using the purely mental method of proving the correctness of thinking and drawing conclusions, independent of direct obser-vations and measurements in reality. Unfortunately, the mathematical formalism is hardly understandable to many biologists, psychologists and sociologists, so they treat the pure intellectual process of reasoning and creation of conclusions with some mistrust. Moreover, the information processing system in humans is multi-level and multimodal, and mathematics is not a “native”

code at any of the levels and modes. Thus, it may serve only as auxiliary tool for verifying of reasoning correct-ness, but it not mirrors truly the information processing in living beings, including human. In other words, math-ematics cannot release physical culture scientists from thinking and looking for new ways of reality description. Unfortunately, in contemporary biological sciences – in a broad sense – the apparently reliable ground of eas-ily observable, measurable and countable experimental facts do not make any more a fertile base for real prog-ress in science.

As seeing from evolutionary perspective, one may state that the most primeval from among all four circles is energetic one. Next comes the coordinative one, next emotional/rational (psychological) and fi nally the cultur-al one. On the basis of daily experience it is possible to formulate the hypothesis that the older the “circle”, the stronger is “rooted” in information processing system in human. Thus, in situation of overloading the information processing system (e.g. in high danger) the capability

Abbreviations:A – I have skills; I have energy; I am allowed to do it; I DON’T WANT TO DO IT.B – I have skills; I have energy; I want to do it; I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DO IT.C – I have energy; I want to do it; I am allowed to do it; I HAVE NO SKILLS.D – I have skills; I want to do it; I am allowed to do it; I HAVE NO ENERGY.1 – I have skills; I am allowed to do it; I HAVE NO ENERGY; I DON’T WANT TO DO IT.2 – I have skills; I have energy; I don’t want to do it; I am not allowed to do it;3 – I have energy; I want to do it; I have no skills; I am not allowed to do it.4 – I want to do it; I am allowed to do it; I HAVE NO SKILLS; I HAVE NO ENERGY.

Cultural motor actions: I have skills; I have energy; I want to do it; I am allowed to do it.

Fig. 3. Interrelations between coordination, energy transformation, emotions+mind and culture; cultural motor actions

CULTURE EMOTIONS AND MIND

COORDINATION ENERGY TRANSFORMATION

1 3

2

4

CULTURAL MOTOR

ACTIONS

A B

CD


– 125 –

of it becomes limited and fi rst the cultural circle – most sophisticated, but at the same time most vulnerable to any disturbances – is being “switched off”, then the psy-chological, and fi nally the coordinative one. This is also fully coherent with Abraham Maslow’s theory [21].

Time is the most abstract notion from among all the elements infl uencing behaviour of living creatures, including a human. No living being has special sense organs to perceive it. According to Hotz:

“The time is an invention of humans which arose from the real need to better orientate themselves in events. The Nature gives some rhythms. The periodical returns of sun and moon, beating of heart – it enables us to learn and experience the notion of time. When we line such periods and count them, then we obtain the time” [14].

Nevertheless, just this elusive phenomenon infl u-ences greatly an overall behaviour of all living beings, including human. The modality of space and motion perception results in the necessity of taking into consid-eration also that new element: the time. More and more advanced understanding of this phenomenon – and making proper use of this understanding – gave better chances in permanent, evolutionary fi ght for surviving. The humans have developed two magnifi cent abilities: abstract projection of reality (language) and perceiving the time as a universal factor which orders the succes-sion of events in perspective much wider than that de-termined by limits of sense organs. Both these abilities make two main pillars of abstract thinking which make the ground for culture formation. The culture, in turn, infl uences also the most primeval behaviour patterns of humans, i.e. the motor ones.

Summing up, it is to be stated that:• Information extracted from contactceptive stimuli

(mainly touch) is so primitive that it does not need a code of processing including any time percep-tion,

• Information extracted from teleceptive stimuli (in humans mainly vision) carries so rich information that it was necessary to create a code of process-ing including elementary time perception (timing, limited by sense organs capabilities).

• Verbal information has to be processed with highly sophisticated code including time perception in historical and cultural scope; this is purely human perspective of reality perception.

It is to be noted that the perception of time is not the same as its full understanding. By now scientists were not able to formulate good defi nition of time.

Nevertheless, employing increasingly advanced codes and methods of information processing, including more and more thorough time understanding, was possible only when the central nervous system reached succes-sive, higher and higher stages of development. This process was illustratively described by Bernstein [4, 5, 6, 7].

Currently it is more and more obvious that reality does not obey the divisions of science into particular branches as made by learned people. These divisions are more and more often perceived as senseless or even harmful to science. K. Popper wrote:

“...universities completely needlessly have fragmented the knowledge into different, specialized branches. Each of them, with-out any necessity, had been closed in its own ritual and terminology. It is necessary to counteract this fragmentation of science [2]”.

On the other hand it becomes clear that it is im-possible to solve the greatest intellectual and practical problems within the frames of one branch of science only. So, it becomes necessary to apply so called inter-disciplinary approach. Bogdan Czabański wrote:

“In motor learning – to make the image of particular elements more clear – one may divide the emotional, cognitive, motor and social layers, but it is always to be remembered that they make one coherent system of learning in humans” [22].

Unfortunately, the movements’ creation and con-trol seems to be not very interesting to psychologists or even specialists in cognitive science. Cacioppo and Berntson wrote:

“... the study of complex aspects of the mind and behaviour will benefi t from yet a broader collaboration of neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and social scientists” [19].

Here very characteristic is the absence of a very important aspect of human behaviour, i.e. the motor one. James Kalat, other outstanding psychologist, ex-pressed this still more clearly:

“... most of psychologists do not care much about the move-ment. The investigation of muscle contractions seems to be less »psychological« than research into visual perception, learning pro-cesses, social interactions, motivation or emotion. Nevertheless, quick movements of a skilled typist, professional musician or athlete need very complex brain activity. Movement understanding is the great challenge both for psychologists and biologists” [23].

Hence, it seems that just the living beings’ motor activity constitutes fundamental element of biological “jigsaw puzzle” enabling scientists to understand and describe the behaviour of animals and humans. In other words, omitting the motor aspects of human behaviour


– 126 –

makes it diffi cult (if not completely impossible) to under-stand. Roughly one may then state that:• Performing goal-aimed, reactive operations in tan-

gible (recognized by contactceptors) environment does not need any recognition of time,

• Performing deliberate, active operations in observ-able (recognized by teleceptors) environment needs time recognition at level of timing,

• Performing cultural, creative operations in perceiv-able environment needs time recognition reaching beyond the limits of direct sensory observations.

The experimental research of these phenomena and processes in humans are very diffi cult, because, according to Bernstein’s theory, Homo sapiens may

adopt information processing procedures from percep-tive level, virtually impossible to direct experimental research, even in operations simple, reactive and eas-ily observable. The researcher may directly observe only the fi nal result, the movement, but not information processing underlying the creation of this movement. Thus, in fact the researcher never knows, results of what processes he observes experimentally.

Fortunately enough, the kinesiology – and its “hard core”, the motor science (or motor control) – involves all the four circles of elements infl uencing behaviour of hu-man in a society: energy, coordination, motivation and culture. Understanding their interrelations would not be possible without taking into account the problem of time perception.


[1] Latash ML: Synergy, New York, Oxford University Press, 2008.

[2] Sorman G: The Real Thinkers of Our Times [in Polish: Prawdziwi myśliciele naszych czasów]. Warszawa, Czy-telnik, 1993.

[3] Wróblewski AK: The History of Physics [in Polish: Historia fi zyki], Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2007.

[4] Bernstein NA: On Construction of Movements [in Russian: O postroyenii dvizheniy], Moskva, Medgiz, 1947.

[5] Bernstein NA: Movements’ coordination in ontogenesis [in Russian: Koordinaciya dvizeniy v ontogeneze]; in: Ucenye zapiski Gosudarstvennogo centralnogo instituta fi zkultury, vol 2. Moskva, Fizkultura i Sport, 1947: 3–52.

[6] Bernstein NA: On Dexterity and Its Development [in Rus-sian: O lovkosti i yeyo razviti]. Moskva, Fizkultura i Sport, 1991.

[7] Bernstein NA: On Dexterity and Its Development; in Latash ML, Turvey MT (eds.): Dexterity and Its Development, Mahwah, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 1996: 1–243.

[8] Gundlach H: System Connections of Somatic Abilities and Skills [in German: Systembeziehungen körperlicher Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeiten]. Theorie und Praxis der Körperkultur, 1968; 17(2): 198–205.

[9] Calder R: The Inheritors; The Story of Man and The World He Made [in Polish: Spadkobiercy]. Warszawa, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1972.

[10] Andersen H, Grush R: A Brief History of Time-Conscious-ness: Historical Precursors to James and Husserl. Journal of the History of Philosophy, April 2009; vol. 47, no 2: 277–307.

[11] Ulmer H-V: Time: The fourth dimension of long-time goal-oriented motoricity [in German: Die Zeit: Vierte Dimension einer Langzeit-Zielmotorik]; in Hirtz P, Nüske F (eds.), Bewegungskoordination und sportliche Leistung intrgrativ betrachtet, Schriften der Deutschen Vereingung für Sport-wissenschaft, Bd 87. Hamburg, Czwalina Verlag: 105–109.

[12] Janowski J: Depicting of imagined space in pictures [in Polish: Przedstawienia wyobrażonej przestrzeni na obrazach]; in: Francuz P (ed.): Obrazy w umyśle. Studia nad percepcją i wyobraźnią. Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Naukowe “Scholar”, 2007.

[13] Allott R: The Motor Theory of Language; in von Raffl er-Engel W, Wind J, Jonker A (eds.): Studies in Language Origins, vol. 2. Amsterdam – Philadelphia, John Benja-mins Publishing Company, 1991: 123–157.

[14] Hotz A: Qualitative Movements’ Learning [in German: Qualitatives Bewegungslernen], Bern, Verlag Schweiz-erischer Verband für Sport in der Schule SVSS, 1997.

[15] http://london.sonoma.edu, retrieved 18.03.2009.[16] Feigenberg IM: Probabilistic prognosis in human activ-

ity and animals’ behavior [in Russian: Veroyatnostnoye prognozirovaniye w deyatelnosti cheloveka i poviedenii zhivotnykh]. Moskva, Nyudiamed, 2008.

[17] Borysiuk Z: Temporal Structure of Informational Proces-ses in Selected Combat Sports [in Polish: Struktura czasowa procesów informacyjnych w wybranych spor-tach walki]. Warszawa, Academy of Physical Education, 2006.

[18] Hawking S: The Illustrated A Brief History of Time [in Polish: Ilustrowana krótka historia czasu]. Warszawa, Zysk i S-ka, 2005.

[19] Cacioppo JT, Berntson GG: Social Neuroscience; in Ca-cioppo JT, Berntson GG, Adolphs R, Carter CS, Davidson RJ, McClintock MK, McEwen BS, Meaney MJ, Schacter DL, Sternberg EM, Suomi SS, Taylor SE (eds.): Founda-tions in Social Neuroscience. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2002: 3–10.

[20] The Dictionary of Polish Language [in Polish: Słownik języka polskiego]. Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 1989.

[21] Maslow A: Motivation and personality [in Polish: Moty-wacja i osobowość], Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2009.


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[22] Czabański B: Optimization of Learning and Teaching Sport Activities [in Polish: Optymalizacja uczenia się i nauczania czynności sportowych]. Academy of Physical Education, Wrocław, 1986.

[23] Kalat JW: Biological Psychology [in Polish: Biologiczne podstawy psychologii]. Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Nau-kowe PWN, 2006.

ANNOUNCEMENTSINFORMACJE

– 131 –


THE INTERNATIONAL FORUM

“Health and Longevity”Kielce, Poland20–22.05.2010

HONORARY PATRONAGE

THE POLISH MINISTER OF HEALTH

World Health Organization – Office in Poland

ORGANISERS

The Faculty of Health Sciences The Jan Kochanowski University of Humanities and Sciences in Kielce

The Foundation For the Development of Surgery Holycross Cancer Center

The City of KielceHealth promoting Association Qigong – Soaring Crane

MEDIA PATRONAGE

Radio FAMA

THE AIM OF FORUM

The aim of the forum is to propagate the idea of a healthy lifestyle in the context of ageing of

societies, the exchange of ideas and experiences as well as presenting the results of scientific

research towards functioning of man in health and sickness.

The Forum is one of the elements of a great venture taken up by the Jan Kochanowski University

of Humanities and Sciences in Kielce, Holycross Cancer Center and the Government of Kielce

and the Region, concerning the Tumour Prevention Centre in Kielce.

Correspondence address: [email protected]

http://www.ujk.edu.pl/mfzid/

– 132 –

COMPETITION OF RESEARCH PAPERSON PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHING

FOR PROF. BOGDAN CZABAŃSKI’S AWARD

Submission requirements:

• Only papers published in the year prior to the date of competition may be submitted.

• Papers (off-prints) must be sent before the end of March 2011 to the Organizers’ address:

Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego

Katedra Dydaktyki Wychowania Fizycznegoul. Witelona 25, 51-617 Wrocław, PolandTel. 0 (prefi x) 71 347-31-69, fax 348-25-27

www.awf.wroc.pl/czabanskie-mail: [email protected]

• Independent academics and former award winners must not partake in the competition.• A research paper can be a teamwork effort, but the team of authors must not include an

independent academic.

Evaluation criteria:• Submitted papers must be research papers.• All papers must be on the subject of physical education teaching.

Jury:Three independent academics, professors

of the University School of Physical Education in Wroclaw, Poland:

• Prorector for Research,• Head of Chair of Physical Education Didactics,• Head of Chair of Swimming.

The jury convenes on 24 April 2011. The jury’s fi nal decision will be made available to all participants.

Only one paper will be awarded with the prize (diploma of merit and 1.000 PLN).The award will be presented during the inauguration ceremony of the academic year

2011/2012 at the University School of Physical Education in Wroclaw, Poland.


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