Influence of regular soccer or swimming practice on gross motor development in childhood

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyse the changes on gross motor development after five (T5), ten (T10) and 30 (T30) months of swimming or soccer practice. The study sample consists of 33 preschoolaged boys (4.8±0.5 yrs.): 11 soccer practitioners; 11 swimming practitioners; 11 controls (no previous involvement in sports). The Test of Gross Motor Development-Second Edition was used to assess common gross motor skills (locomotion, object control skills). Both experimental groups improved significantly in their gross motor quotient and the standard scores for locomotion and object control skills between T5 and T10. At T10, all soccer practitioners have already reached the maximum descriptive rating for the gross motor quotient. Between T10 and T30, swimming practitioners were able to improve the standard scores for object control skills. Main results showed a positive impact of swimming and soccer participation in motor proficiency.

Anthropometric and Motor Competence Classifiers of Swimming Ability in Preschool Children—A Pilot Study

“…There has been a lack of researches about MC effects on the swimming performance and swimming ability of preschool children in the current literature. However, previous studies investigated the effects of swimming practice on MC [ 9 , 10 ]. Hence, this is the first study that relates MC to swimming ability and evaluates its contribution to preschool children’s swimming ability.…”

“…Previous studies have also proposed that swimming has a beneficial impact on pulmonary functions and respiratory muscle strength of healthy boys [ 6 ] and cardiorespiratory fitness and body composition of healthy children [ 7 , 8 ]. Moreover, swimming develops motor competence (MC) of healthy children [ 9 , 10 ]. On the contrary, if the water fails to meet water quality standards, exposure to disinfection byproducts in indoor swimming pool water may indicate numerous health problems (e.g., cough, eye irritation, and rash) [ 11 , 12 ].…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, only three studies previously modeled children’s swimming ability—two in the function of sociodemographic characteristics [ 24 , 25 ], and one in the function of body size [ 26 ]. Previous studies have instead investigated the effects of swimming practice on MC [ 9 , 10 ]. Nonetheless, neither of them investigated the impact of MC on swimming performance nor swimming ability in preschool and school-age children and adolescents.…”

A influência da prática regular de natação no desenvolvimento motor global na infância (The influence of regular swimming practices on global motor development throughout childhood)

“…De uma forma global, as crianças do presente estudo demonstraram valores brutos e de quociente global de desenvolvimento TGMD-2 inferiores às crianças de outros estudos (p. ex., Martins, et al, 2015;Rocha, Marinho, Jidovtseff, Silva, & Costa, 2016) independentemente dos grupos considerados. Parece assim existir um problema de desenvolvimento motor global nas crianças brasileiras em estudo, o que é concordante com dados anteriores (Valentini, et al, 2016).…”

“…Relativamente à prática regular de natação, os efeitos positivos que sugerem os nossos resultados são concordantes com os resultados anteriores em crianças portuguesas (Martins, et al, 2015;Rocha, et al, 2016). Os autores (Martins, et al, 2015;Rocha, et al, 2016) demonstraram que a aprendizagem da natação em contexto escolar parece contribuir para um desempenho otimizado em várias habilidades motoras globais. Quando analisadas as diferentes faixas etárias, os resultados encontrados sugerem que as crianças mais novas, entre os 5 e os 8 anos de idade, estão mais dependentes da prática regular da modalidade de natação para aperfeiçoar as habilidades de locomoção e de controlo de objeto.…”