Research purpose. The present study aims to examine the changes in physical activity levels during the lockdown due to COVID-19 in Italy. In particular, it aims to evaluate the impact of physical exercise on psychological health, how much the home environment influences the desire to train and what people think about Smart-fitness and sport in general. Materials and methods. A sample of 268 people from the province of Salerno participated in the study, with an average age of 26 years. To achieve the tasks set, the study relied on the following methods: analysis of scientific literature, formulation and administration of a questionnaire and data analysis through methods of mathematical statistics. A structured questionnaire was prepared, disseminated through social networks. To analyze the data, the Social Sciences Statistical Package (SPSS) and descriptive statistics were used to calculate the demographic variables. The factor analysis was also calculated to verify the characteristics of the sport considered important by the participants. Results. The results obtained made it possible to understand the main type of physical activity carried out during the quarantine (aerobic activity 35%, functional training 27%, anaerobic activity 19%), the time dedicated to each session (52.8% practice for 1 hour) and the weekly frequency of the same (42.9% practice physical activity continuously more than ¾ times a week). It was also understood the reasons that prompted the interviewees to train, the way they planned their session and the equipment used. Finally, it was shown that the majority of the sample (64.17%) knew smart fitness considering it an interesting activity, and the influence attributed to the home environment by a scale of values from 1 to 5. Furthermore, the factor analysis shows us the most relevant aspects wich respondents attributed to sport. More frequently, respondents place greater importance on being loyal and correct, on the contrary, lower values are attributed to the importance of earning money, and not to disappoint others. Conclusions. The study found that COVID-19 did not stop athletes, who quickly adapted to the new situation. The home environment has proved to be very influential on the desire to train, despite this, they hope to return to the gym as soon as possible.

Line dancing is one of the most practiced dance styles by adults and seniors due to the ease of execution of choreography. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic prolonging the restrictions of physical and sports activities, the elderly population has been forced into increased sedentariness and social isolation, resulting in the development of symptoms of depression. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of line dancing practice on the mental state of late second- and third-age dancers. The sample consisted of 14 Italian female dancers with an average age of 65 years old. The Geriatric Depression Scale was used to verify whether 3 months of LD classes were able to produce improvements. Paired Samples T-Test and effect size were performed to test the difference between pre- and post-training protocol. The result was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Dancers improved their state of depression; in particular, they felt a better satisfaction in their life (d = 0.6), a greater interest in activities (d = 1), less boredom (d = 0.8), a good mood most of the time (d = 0.8), greater happiness throughout the day (d = 0.7), and the perception of a wonderful life (d = 0.5). Line dancing has proven to be an effective physical activity for improving the state of depression in late second- and third-age dancers.

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Background and study aim. The ecological-dynamic approach promotes motor learning through task variability, modification of environmental constraints and appropriate use of feedback, original and creative motor solutions. This study wants to open a critical perspective on the didactics of physical activity selecting a methodological perspective adherent to ecological-dynamic approach. The aim is to highlight the significant aspects and the uniqueness and unrepeatability of heuristic learning, starting from theoretical lines. Material and Methods. For this purpose, an accurate survey of the scientific literature has been analyzed, highlighting the points of contact and contrast of cognitive and ecological-dynamic approach. Results. In the context of physical education, the most used pedagogical approach is the linear one. Teaching is influenced by spatial and temporal constraints, spaces and equipment, with reproduction styles and with predefined tasks and motor responses. This modality promotes awareness of motor skills and not transferability to other subject areas, as indicated by ministerial documents. Non-linear pedagogy, while promoting motor learning as a consequence of the interaction between the subject and the context, shows some limits. The first concerns the learning of transversal skills and, the second concerns the use of prescriptive teaching, absent in the ecological-dynamic approach, through heuristic learning. It is necessary to overcome the areas of prescriptiveness that still resist in the paradigm most recognized by the scientific community, the Constraints Led Approach, closely related to nonlinear pedagogy. They do not favor completely a heuristic learning as the anthropometric constraints suffer from the limitation of biomechanics. Also, goal constraints are prescriptively determined by the physical education teacher, which is not compatible with heuristic learning. Conclusions. This analysis highlights the need, usefulness and usability of heuristic learning in different professional fields. The study aims to offer a new perspective on physical education objectives in the National Indications, projecting them towards a social and transversal purpose.

Introduction Soccer is a very dynamic sport in which players must constantly adapt to game situations. As a result, the tension and effort during the game changes, depending on the action on the field. For this reason, aerobic power is a key element for a soccer player. Scope The objective is to test whether an 8-week intermittent training protocol can improve aerobic power in a professional soccer team. Methods The sample consisted of eighteen youth soccer players from a professional team with an average age of 17 years. For eight weeks, the players were subjected to intermittent training, i.e., running with variations in speed at predetermined times and distances: we proceeded with the principle of variation and progression of the load, up to week five, after which the intermittent work sessions were reduced to one per week. The reference parameter taken into consideration is the distance covered by the yo-yo intermittent recovery test, carried out before and after the training period. The Student's t-test for paired dependent samples was used as a statistical tool to verify the significance of the difference between the mean of the two tests. Results The result was statistically significant (p < .05). Intermittent training was able to improve aerobic power in professional soccer team. Conclusion From the data obtained it is possible to evaluate the characteristics of the players to propose personalized loads or organize the work in small groups as homogeneous as possible to make the training more effective.